


Lady in Red

by blhates



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: F/F, Lesbian AU, Mostly Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2020-11-28 14:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 61,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20967974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blhates/pseuds/blhates
Summary: A blonde walks into a bar...[ basically an AU where Brooke is a brilliant surgeon and Vanessa is a bar owner right down the street to the hospital, they meet and the rest is history]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hiii! I started writing this last week out of boredom and need to escape my uni responsibilities. I've had this story in my head for a while now and I've decided to publish it here to take you with me on this journey.  
If there are any inaccuracies ignore them and come live in this fantasy hahaha, also how the hospital works I based on my country so it can differ from how you know it.  
Also I proof read this once just so I don't chicken out and decide not to post it, so if there are any errors , sorry loves!  
<3

To have such a crowd on Monday night is definitely somewhat strange for Lady in Red bar. Only the weekends keep the bar packed from 6am till closing at 3am the next day. Vanessa is barely keeping up with everything since she hadn’t sleep well last night and was slightly behind in her job as a bar owner. The hope that she’ll do the bar finances during her shift went right out the window when she practically had to push through people to enter.

“Kameron, babe, what the hell is happening?” she asks her newest bartender, and hottest if she might add, as she put on the little apron.

“Vanj, thank God!”, Kameron only noticing her when she spoke, “I’m getting run over here, honestly” as she spoke she was handing a drink to one customer and charging the other. 

“Then I’m here to the rescue,” she immediately switched her bar mode on, meaning a dazzling smile and amped up charm.

It was not going as well as she wanted, because she kept thinking how she’s not going to sleep tonight as well, because she can’t do anything now. Her panic seemed to rise but she couldn’t afford to lose it when this particular shift was truly a two-person job.

She looks around, mostly familiar faces, everybody drinking alcohol and the atmosphere is very happy, almost light.

“On nights like these, I’m so happy you decided to invest in expanding the bar area and organizing it more. Because a month ago we would’ve knocked each other over at one point for sure!” Kameron reaches over Vanessa to get the martini glasses.

“I’m with you on that, I don’t know why I spent so much time second-guessing it” she smiles at a new customer, “what can I get ya babe.”

“Two beers and a tequila shot” a woman, a regular, says as she leans over. Vanessa gets right on it, prints the receipt as she pours the beer and the shot.

Just as she’s about to place it all in front of the woman, she holds her hand up, “Nah love, the shot is for you. Take it as sorry for taking over the bar.”

Vanessa smiles, it’s definitely not the first time she’s gotten drinks from customers but ever since she has owned the bar she stopped actually taking them.

“Oh that’s fine, the more the merrier!” she says even though tonight she wishes she could just call it a night at 8pm and be done with it. She technically can, but it’s not good for business.

The woman, Vanessa thinks her name is Asia but is not sure, she keeps mixing her up with Monet. They started coming to the bar almost every day in the last 2 months.

“Yeah yeah, I’m a lawyer baby, I can see right through you,” she winks, “take the tequila, I promise not to tell anyone.”

She turns around and yells, “Monet, come here! I’m not serving you bitch.”

_Okay so I guess that is Asia, _Vanessa thought.

“Hey, though, why did you raid my bar tonight? Is the whole firm here, it sure looks like it?” Vanessa asked before her and Monet could leave.

Asia turns again, looks at the untouched tequila shot in front of Vanessa, then just stares pointedly at her. It was like a silent blackmail; those lawyers could truly stare down a hoe.

Vanessa rolls her eyes, exasperated, drinks the shot and raises her brow.

“We won a huge case, which brought us a lot of money and most importantly it was against our rival firm. So the bosses said, work over let’s head down to the bar and celebrate” Asia shrugs, “and yeah we all here. Which isn’t a surprise, you know everybody in the two block radius comes exclusively here.”

Vanessa smiles and they leave with their respective drinks.

That was true, Lady in Red’s bar basically held the monopoly over the ‘where people get coffee in the morning/lunch’ and ‘where they go to drink after work’. Vanessa knows she is in a good spot; she has worked in this bar since she was 18 which is 11 years now.

There was a law firm right across, real estate agency on the left, a hospital down the street and a whole apartment complex in the next street. About one third of the customers she knows from the beginning, those are usually hospital employees and the people from the apartments. Hospital is the actual money maker for the bar though, if it’s not doctors who come in the morning for coffee or the residents who go for a beer or a shot to unwind, it’s the patient’s families who need to take a walk and somehow always end up in her bar.

Vanessa to this day does not understand how her aunt Maritza got so lucky with this place. She bought it over 20 years ago from a guy for a ridiculous price because he needed the money quick.

As soon as the deal was made, she packed her bags and moved from Puerto Rico to LA. Maritza spent all of her savings on renovating the bar but it majorly payed off. The business was growing from the start and eventually she took out a loan to buy an apartment.

She said to Vanessa that if she wants to continue her school in America she is more than welcome to come and stay with her, which was an offer that couldn’t be refused. So she moved to America, just as she turned 16, to live with her aunt.

Now, she is 29 years old, owner of the said bar, because her aunt got remarried and moved to Spain.

“I think it’s finally slowing down,” Kameron comments while putting another round of glasses in the washer.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll manage to do some things tonight.” Vanessa sorts the bar quickly and wipes what was spilled.

Kameron turns around, “Girl, are we talking about the finances again?”, Vanessa breaks the eye contact and cleans the surface again, “we are, aren’t we. You keep postponing it! Why don’t you just hire someone to do it? It obviously isn’t something you like doing.” Kameron leans on the sink.

“I know, I know. Every time it comes on my schedule I want to die,” Vanessa sighs, “I really should hire someone, I’ve been looking up accounting firms last night.”

Kameron looks around the room, she sees the same thing as Vanessa, a lot of glasses that need to be collected. So she takes her tray circles the bar and addresses Vanessa once again, “If you lost sleep over this, I swear to God…” but Vanessa quickly shakes her head, it wasn’t completely true but it’s also not just that, “Do them tonight, see if you can afford it then tomorrow find someone, because from what I’ve heard and seen in the short time I’ve been here, finance shit is just not for you, babe.” Kameron turns on her heels and goes around the bar in such pace it was difficult to follow her. For a butch lady she moved so swiftly through the crowd, one of the things that impressed Vanessa when she hired her.

What she suggested though, was on not far off from what Vanessa planned. It was practically her train of thought, only from 2 months back. Even though she wasn’t a control freak in her personal life, like at all, she was about this bar. She needed to know everything, keep track of everything because she felt like she owed it to her aunt. And if Maritza could do everything by herself, there shouldn’t be a reason for her not to do the same.

But now, she really needs to come to terms that it won’t be the end of the world if she hires someone to do her books and financial records.

“I give it 20 minutes and we’ll have our regular Monday night again,” Kameron came back with a full tray of glasses, pulling Vanessa from her thoughts, “they are mostly scattering and just nursing the drinks now.”

“Good,” she sighs, “can you manage on your own?” she replaces the empty bottles

“Of course, do what you need to, I’ll holler if I need ya”, Kameron waves her hand at her, turning to a guy that just came up to the bar.

So Vanessa pulls her books and laptop from the back and sot on the far right edge of the bar, so she can jump in and help if she needs to. And to be frank, she almost never uses the office in the back because it is too quiet and she felt too isolated, the noise of the bar in some way relaxes her.

Almost to a T, half an hour later, the bar was half empty.

Her back starting to hurt from sitting in a bar stool and slouching over the laptop made her go to one of the booths across to properly sit. Not even 10 minutes later, Kameron comes over to her booth to bring her a cocktail with a strange twinkle in her eye.

“What?” Vanessa put her hair once again behind her ears, the new honey coloured bop she’s got making it hard to keep her hair out of her face.

“A hot blonde chick just sat at a bar,” Kameron wiggles her eyebrows,” your type”

Vanessa shifted her gaze over Kameron’s shoulder, to the bar and there was a tall, leggy blonde sitting there, drinking gin tonic if she’s seeing correctly. She definitely looked like she came straight outta Vanessa’s fantasies, but today was totally not the day to flirt. Anybody who is capable of flirting after looking at numbers and taxes is one skilled motherfucker.

“Not today,” Vanessa moves from the beautiful blonde to her laptop screen again.

Kameron exhales, shaking her head, “Of course, it’s never the day,” she purses her lips, “if I’m informed correctly, it’s hadn’t been the day for the last six months.”

Vanessa wanted to tell her off, because her whole staff (who are unfortunately, in this particular sense, her friends as well) keeps trying to set her up with someone from the moment she broke up with her last girlfriend.

“How many times do I have to say that it has nothing to do with Aquaria?” she just kept looking at the screen.

“Then what gives, because A’keria told me you literally haven’t gotten laid since? It’s not healthy for you. No wonder you don’t sleep.”

Vanessa straightens up, “Kam, I love you, but I would really appreciate if you and A’keria would stop getting up in my business about this. I said what I said, this year taking over the bar and settling in, is my first priority. I don’t have time nor energy for a relationship.”

“Who said anything about a relationship? I’m talking letting off some steam and getting it on with gorgeous looking women, like that blonde.” Kameron points her thumb back at the bar.

“Oh my god,” Vanessa rolls her eyes, “you and I both know that my heart lives in my vagina. That’s not how it works here” she gestures at her crotch.

Kameron throws her hands up, “Well move your heart back where it should be,” she taps her chest once, “and let your little Vanjie have some fun”

Vanessa glares at her, “you can move your butt back to the bar, cause it seems like blondie finished her drink, maybe she needs another one and as far as I’m concerned you can have all fun with her.”

She just returned to her work, as Kameron turned on her heel to go.

It was almost midnight, Vanessa finally done, faster than she anticipated. With great joy she closes her laptop and joins Kameron at the bar, but she isn’t there. Someone else is, though. The blonde is still sitting there, hand in peanuts, staring blankly at nothing in particular.

_Okay you are gorgeous for real, real, _Vanessa found herself staring at her. From her long blonde hair, big blue eyes and those full lips. She looks very tired, making Vanessa feel like she should just wrap her up and pet her while she sleeps.

She’s not sure how long she’s been staring at her, but Kameron startles her by hitting her with a sponge_. I’m a creeper, great. Get over yourself Vanessa_

Now that she thinks about it, lady didn’t even blink for too long, “Mami,” she gets closer to the counter, “you alright?” she decides against touching her elbow, her hand left hovering.

Those blue eyes snap immediately, her body slightly shivers, “Hm? What?” She looks at Vanessa, gaze slightly unfocused.

“I asked if you are alright?” It took her two seconds to repeat herself. She’s unable to understand why she’s so affected.

“Oh yeah, yeah. I dozed off, sorry,” lady rubs her eyes and finally really takes in who’s standing in front of her, a slight frown appears, “How long was I out, did the shift change?”

“Not long, as far as I’m aware, no,” Vanessa looks at her watch,” it’s midnight. You need me to call you a taxi?” Even though she didn’t look drunk and probably wasn’t, if she’s that tired she shouldn’t drive.

“I’m good,” her expression changes and Vanessa swears she just checked her out, “I’m not far from here.

“Then, how come I haven’t seen you before?” just comes straight out of Vanessa’s mouth because her brain apparently stopped functioning. She blushes.

Lady gets a slight glint in her eyes and now fully turns to Vanessa, moving her empty glass out of her way, “I could ask you the same question, I get coffee here almost every morning and I’m _sure_ I never saw you.”

“I’m the owner,” Vanessa starts to clean the coffee machine and lady’s eyebrow rises, “and I mostly work night shifts.”

Right corner of her lips rises and she reaches her hand out “Then we should get properly introduced, since we’ll probably see each other quite often now. I’m Brooke.”

Vanessa stares at her again, then looks at her hand still in the air. Brooke’s posture slightly shifts and Vanessa shakes her hand quickly before she pulls it back, “Vanessa.”

**…**

Brooke keeps her word, she’s already 4th day in a row at the bar. For two reasons only, she got all day shifts this month and because Vanessa is not just the prettiest woman she has ever seen but also the most engaging. Brooke would be fully entertained if she just watched her work.

If she’s being honest, she would’ve been a pain to work with this month if she hadn’t discovered such wonderful company at her favourite bar. Day shifts take up her whole day, she even prefers night shift over them. With morning shifts she can stay longer at the hospital and research for a bit, go to a dance studio to let off some steam and at the end of the day read a good book while she’s curled up with her cats on the couch. On good days when her best friend and roommate, Nina, has the same shift as her they’ll go out or have a girl’s night in.

Since she has made a name for herself as a paediatric surgeon, she pretty much got any shift she wanted, hence only working mornings. But, her fellow’s, Yvie, wife just gave birth to their little girl last month and when she came back to work she begged Brooke to give up morning shifts for a month so that she can spend as much time with her kid. Brooke hadn’t had the heart to say no.

“So how was your day, Mami? Saved a bunch of little ones?” Vanessa kept drying the glass as she addressed her. The ‘Mami’ nickname, made her stomach flutter every time, especially because she hasn’t heard her call anyone else that way nor has anyone called her that ever. Brooke sits on the bar stool and leanes over to grab the peanut bowl.

“Only had one surgery today actually, boy named Thomas had appendicitis, rest of the day completely uneventful.” Brooke shrugs and starts to munch on the peanuts.

“Poor guy, hope he recovers soon,” Vanessa pouts, “still sticking to gin and tonic?” Vanessa reaching for the gin as she says it.

Brooke realizes that this will be the 4th day in a row that she drinks after work, which is not good. She was never the ‘drink after work’ person, but it felt weird to order tea at 10pm.

“Actually, can you make me tea? I’ve been drinking way too much this week.”

Vanessa nods and gets right on it. Before she placing it in front of Brooke, she takes another customer’s order and goes to talk to Kameron.

She doesn’t like how crowded it is, just because Vanessa’s attention is too divided, they can’t even get three sentences in without someone ordering something or she having to do something.

“I’m being a bad barkeep, aren’t I?” she says in a silly voice, kinda piraty, swinging her arm which makes Brooke laugh.

“Where did that come from?” laughter still in her voice.

It seemed like Vanessa blushes a little, “I’m mean, like, I can usually kiki with you and listen to you vent. But it’s the weekend, hence the crowd, hence me not fulfilling my duty as a proper bartender.”

Brooke smiles behind the rim of the tea cup,” you’re in luck today, because it was sort of too boring to even talk about it,” she frowns then, “hey! You vent too! I had to listen about bar management for 40 minutes yesterday.”

Vanessa tosses a napkin at her, “maybe tomorrow I’ll think of something more entertaining for you to listen. Not all of us our living a hospital drama fantasy.”

Brooke shakes her head and smiles down at the bar, then remembers, “Actually, I have a day off tomorrow so you’ll have to save it for Sunday.”

Vanessa looked like she was about to pout, honest to god, Brooke had to refrain herself from squeezing her face and kissing it away. Those pesky little urges kept bubbling up more frequently each day.

“I don’t work Sundays” and now Brooke wants to pout, “so that means, Monday. I can make up a whole comedy act until then.”

Brooke didn’t like the idea of not seeing her for full two days, basically three since she’ll be at the bar at night.

Vanessa went to serve a couple of customers, with some she had a friendly chat. She also thinks she saw her look at her a couple of times, as if to check if she’s still there or something.

_God she’s pretty, _Brooke watches her laugh at something Kameron said to her. Like she felt she’s being watched, Vanessa turns to Brooke and smiles, but more contained. She approaches her again.

“You want another tea?” she took the cup and rinsed it out, Brooke just shook her head.

_Fuck it, I’m just going to shoot my shot, _Brooke thinks and speaks up, “We could exchange numbers?” Vanessa’s freezes, her face shocked, Brooke continues, “I know that two days without such riveting company will be unbearable,” she places her hand on her heart in faux sincerity.

Vanessa relaxes a bit, “You just want to rant in real time,” she pulls out a business card from a box and hands it to Brooke, “there’s my phone number. Send me a text and I’ll save yours.”

Brooke places it in her wallet.

Vanessa is once again taken away by a customer, so Brooke just puts money for the tea under the bowl of peanuts decides that she should really get home.

As she walks through the crowd she looks back at Vanessa who is scanning the room with a frown on her face until her eyes settle on Brooke.

‘I’m leaving’ she mouths to Vanessa and gestures to the door. Vanessa mouths ‘okay’ and waves goodbye.

Brooke arrives home fairly quickly, surprised that lights are on in the apartment.

“Nina, you up?” she puts her key in the bowl, hangs her jacket up.

She opens the door to her bedroom to place her bag there and then makes her way up to the kitchen.

Her roommate is sitting at the table, window open, smoking and eating cookies. If it was anybody else, this could be considered a somewhat normal thing, but Nina never smokes and sugar makes her sleep badly so she avoids it at night.

“What’s going on?” Brooke startles her, Nina didn’t even notice her come in. She places the cookie back on the plate and takes a drag from the cigarette.

“Monet and I fought.” She spoke when Brooke sat down across her. That was a surprise, Nina and Monet very rarely fight. Bicker, sure, but they don’t fight, at least not in a way it makes Nina seek out Brooke’s cigarettes.

“Why?” Brooke takes a cigarette as well.

Nina inhaled, “you know how when it was our six-month anniversary, I took off to Miami to that gynaecologist convention, totally forgetting it was on the same weekend and telling her literally the week of that I’m not here?” Brooke nodded. That day was the first time they actually yelled at each other, Brooke was in the apartment sleeping when it happened.

“Yeah, I have that tendency to, you know, not include her in some things that happen during work or like be a bit distant, as she calls it, anyways I promised we’ll have a do over on the one-year anniversary. Which is next weekend and I swear to God I know the date, but I don’t think about it unless is like really close to it. Anyways it turns out I’m working that weekend and it’s a day shift, I could’ve asked for a day off, but it slipped my mind.” Nina stubs out the cigarette.

Brooke really isn’t the one to come to about relationship advice, being that she has never been in a serious relationship, but she can always be a listening ear.

“Like, how bad was the fight, was it today?”

“Bad, she looked very hurt. Yes, she came over after her work for lunch. I mean, I know I’m in the wrong, it’s not just about the anniversary, there are other things that are small but have snowballed over time.” Nina starts playing with the cookie, “I tried apologizing but it didn’t work. She took off, maybe an hour before you came back. I texted her, she didn’t even open it. She told me to apologize with my actions not words. I don’t even know, anymore. I love her so much, but I’m not used to this. For a long time, my work has been the only thing in my life, then I met her and it all shifted.”

Brooke nodded and covered her hand that was playing with the tablecloth, “I didn’t imagine it would be this difficult to incorporate another person in your life. Monet did it amazingly well and it makes me feel like an asshole when I make mistakes. All because I’m learning as I go and _I am_ trying hard because I really don’t want to lose her.”

Nina takes another cigarette out and lights it.

“I could never, honestly. I’m never going to put anything before my work nor stress about managing a relationship when I could be investing my time and stressing over a new technique that can save a bunch of kids’ lives.” Brooke shook her head.

“As years go by, I’m starting to actually believe you, when was the last time you were on a date?” Nina tilted her head.

Brooke actually had to think about it, “If I remember correctly, second year at uni.”

Nina’s jaw drops. “Why are you surprised? We’ve been living together for like 5 years now, when have I gone on a date?” Brooke rolls her eyes.

“I guess I was hoping some of those hook-ups were at least after a date.” Nina laughs.

Brooke shakes her head, “Nope, I realized that I only want to date when I want to have sex. And after sex I suddenly have no interest, so I stopped putting myself through it. There are plenty of people like me who just want to have a fun night and that’s it.” She shrugs, “plus it avoids hurting someone’s feelings.”

Nina definitely didn’t judge her, but there was a bit of sadness in her eyes that was directed towards Brooke. She realizes that her personal life seems lonely to an outsider, but she truly likes it this way. She’s surrounded with love and gives it freely every day, to all the kids and their parents.

“I still hope you’ll join me in my Disney fantasy and not die alone with your cats.” Nina laughs but her smile is immediately wiped when her phone dings.

By the looks of it, Brooke can assume Monet texted her back.

“She texted that she’s home and going to bed and that we’ll talk tomorrow.” Nina looks up and breathes out a sigh of relief.

Brooke smiles, “Great! You’ll work it out.”

“I honestly was fully expecting her to break up with me tomorrow,” Nina texts her back and looks up again, “Oh my god, what if she does break up with me tomorrow?” she reaches for the cigarettes again, but Brooke snatches them away.

“That’s enough for you. She’s not going to break up with you, but even if she does it’s not the end of the world.” Brooke gets up to drink some water.

“I don’t want to break up, I want to make this work. She’s _it, _I know it.” Nina frowns.

“Okay, so make sure it works,” Brooke shrugs,” but now it’s time for you to go to sleep if you plan on functioning at work tomorrow.” She points toward Nina’s bedroom.

Nina gave her a stink eye, “I’m not a child, don’t use that tone with me, I’ll go in a second.”

Brooke tapps her shoulder and goes to her own room.

**…**

Vanessa woke up very late, it was almost 2pm. Even though she usually goes to bed at 5am, her waking time is always before noon. She showered, ate and even made it in time to the accounting firm who she hired to do her books.

Just as she was entering the building, her phone dings. Unknown number.

_-How is coming up with your stand-up routine going?-_

It took Vanessa a second to realize it’s Brooke.

_-Brooke?- _

_-Yup. _

She immediately saves her number as Brooke with the dancing lady emoji.

_-You didn’t answer my question.- _

Vanessa chuckled, _-Not yet, but I’m doing it during my shift because what else am I supposed to do.- _

_-Good, cause I expect a whole production on Monday.-_

_-You won’t know what hit ya, Mami- _

She replied with a bunch of laughing emojis.

They keep texting throughout the day, Vanessa barely able to put the phone down. She learnt more about her through texts than in all of the bar visits. Brooke usually talked about her work, never about her. Learning she dances in her free time and that she was almost a professional ballet dancer made her brain form some grade A images. She also has two cats and lives with her work colleague. Vanessa pictured her living alone, if she’s being honest, but she guesses it makes sense being that she moved here from Seattle with her colleague two years ago. At some point, Brooke started to live comment The Office, because she started re-watching it.

Even when she starts her shift, she keeps her phone on the bar. She feels sorry for Kameron because she zones out at times and just stands there smiling at the phone.

“Okay, I have to ask,” Kameron stands in front of her, “who are you texting? You’ve been staring at that phone since you came here.”

Vanessa puts her phone in the pocket, “Sorry, Imma help you.” She takes an order from a customer.

“No no,” Kameron blocks her way to the liquor, “who is on the other end, girl? Why are you avoiding my question?” Kameron’s face lights up, “oh my god, are you seeing someone?!”

Vanessa sidesteps her, rolling her eyes, “I’m not seeing anyone. It’s a just a friend.”

“You have, like, four friends and your aunt. Don’t lie to me,” Kameron kept pushing.

She mixed the drink for the customer and handed it to them, “I can’t make new friends?”

Kameron huffed, “okay, where did you make this new friend?”

Vanessa shifts her weight from one foot to another, she really does not want to admit it’s Brooke. But, she also knows it’s just the matter of time.

“Here,” she walks over to take the tray, “at the bar.”

Kameron’s brows shoot up in surprise, “It’s the blondie! Isn’t it?” she practically yells after Vanessa who goes to pick up the empty glasses and bowls.

She takes as much time as possible collecting everything, she even stops and chats with some regulars.

Kameron looks like it’s the best thing she heard when Vanessa confirms that it is, in fact, the blondie.

“Her name is Brooke, for your information.”

Kameron hums, “pretty name, suits her.”

Vanessa nods and her phone buzzes again. She responded to a picture Vanessa sent to her from the bar with a picture of her with both of her cats on her lap.

“Aww, she has cats?”

Vanessa moved the phone from Kameron, “and curiosity killed the cat” she points with her phone at Kameron who just looks confusedly at her.

“Anyways, did you ask her out yet?” Kameron claps her hands excitedly. Vanessa goes to attend the bar and says, “absolutely not.”

“Why not?” she puts a hand on her hip and leans on the bar.

The smile she directed to the customer turns real stiff, “Because I told you, I don’t want a new relationship right now. Besides, it’s not like that. I don’t even know if she’s gay.”

Kameron snorts, “The way she’s looking at you tells a different story. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you two flirting,” she wiggles her finger at Vanessa’s face.

“What?” Vanessa scratches her nose, blushing slightly.

“Yup,” Kameron crosses her arms, “but A’keria told me not to spook you and shut about it.”

Vanessa’s mouth dropped, _what am I, a frightened animal?, _“You two are honestly insane. There is nothing going on, can’t two lesbians be friends for god’s sake,” she rolls her eyes.

“Sure they can, we are friends, but I don’t look at you like you are five-star meal,” Kameron shruggs, “you definitely are, don’t get me wrong, but not for me.”

“This conversation is over,” Vanessa lifts her hand, “honestly I should just switch to morning shifts and only work with Shuga cause you and A’keria are bein’ crazy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kameron chuckles, “I would take my chances with Ariel, she can’t be bothered about literally anything,” she says and lets her be.

She did like Brooke, she was smart and funny and _so_ gorgeous. But her heart is not in it, she’d do something about it if she felt like it. Only thing she feels now is immense attraction, which definitely is not enough to date someone in this time in her life. Doesn’t mean that it never crosses her mind; every time Brooke talks enthusiastically about a kid she treated that day or even when a parent annoys her so she has a five-minute rant to Vanessa, but those are small moments. Besides, Brooke never did anything to insinuate she’s interested in Vanessa.

Vanessa shook her head slightly, to clear it, and went back to work.

…

This Monday maybe the best day of this month yet, for Brooke. She has back to back surgeries all day and she heard that one of the kids she treated for a while now, that had cancer, finally went into remission.

Time went so fast that she couldn’t believe it is lunch break already. On top of her happiness from work, her favourite colleagues are also on day shift this week. Trixie and Nina, who are general surgeons and Katya who is a neurosurgeon.

She is also excited to go to Lady in Red after work, but she tries to push that out of her mind for the moment.

“I love the new lip colour, B,” Trixie pointed at her face with a fork full of salad, “did you run out of the nude one?”

Brooke did feel like wearing a red lip today, to skip on her every day nude lipstick.

“No,” she narrowed her eyes at Trixie, “I just felt like changing it up a bit.” Though she understands the slight tease, her make-up is always the same, mostly very subtle.

Katya looks up from her phone and at Brooke, “Hm, your lips do look sinful, you should wear it more often.”

She thanks her right before Katya goes back to looking at her phone.

“Nina, did you and Monet work things out?” Trixie asks her.

Nina smiles, “Yeah, we talked about it and decided on a way to work through things like that, should they occur again. Also it helps that I managed to somehow change my Sunday shift to a morning one, so that we can spend the whole day together.”

“Great, I’m glad,” Trixie places her hand over her chest, “I’d cover your shift if it came to that, honestly.”

Nina laughed, “Thanks Trix.”

Katya placed her hand on Trixie’s shoulder, “Babe, are we still on for Friday?”

Trixie turned back to Nina and Brooke, “Yeah!” she claps her hands, “Katya and I want to go out for drinks this Friday and we were wondering if y’all are up for a girl’s night out?”

“Can I invite Monet?”

Katya says offhandedly, “Of course. The more the merrier.”

“Where did you plan on going?” Brooke plays with her salad.

“Lady in Red, obviously, after we can go to a club if we feel like it,” Trixie shrugs.

Brooke hesitated, she wants to go out and possibly meet someone to stop thinking about Vanessa so much, to get it out of her system. But also, she doesn’t want to include anybody else in her thing, or whatever it is, she has with Vanessa. Her friends would definitely get nosy.

Apparently she was quiet for too long because Trixie snaps her fingers in front of her, “Earth to Brooke? You up for it?”

If she says no, they’ll question it, “Sure,” she answers and hopes for the best.

The rest of the lunch is spent talking about the newest gossip, what Trixie and Katya did over the weekend and what Nina and Monet talked about.

Brooke has two more surgeries before the end of her shift. She is currently walking toward the room where Mia is, a girl who has a tumour growing in her spine. It was the last surgery today.

“Dr. Brooke!” Mia exclaims as soon as Brooke enters the room, her mom getting up from the chair to greet her with a handshake and a nervous smile, “Dr. Hytes.”

Brooke moves to sit down on the other side of the bed, placing Mia’s chart on her lap.

“Hey cutie, are you ready to get that pesky little tumour out?” she smiles at her.

Mia manages to sit up, wincing as she does it, “Finally! My mom told me you are going to make it all go away today,” she pulled her pink bunny out from the covers and hugged it, “I’ll be able to throw a ball again!”

Brooke placed her hand on Mia’s, “I will do my best, so you can be the best pitcher in your team again.”

“You are the best,” Mia smiles at her again.

Brooke softens as she always does with kids, “no, I think you are,” she says and makes Mia blush.

Nurses then came in to prep her for surgery, so she turned to her mother to go over everything again, in hope it’ll settle her nerves a bit. Her heart goes out to the parents, she can’t even imagine being in that position, that’s probably one of the reasons she doesn’t want kids. To carry, nurture and love a human being just for them to get hurt with no reason or, even worse, taken away from you, seems like too much for Brooke.

…

Surgery went well, tumour was completely out and there were almost no complications. It was a good way to end her shift. Brooke changed back to her jeans and a white turtleneck. Her hair was already down, but she decided to take the front strands and clip them in the back.

Nina texted her that she has more work to do, so Brooke doesn’t have to wait up. That was slightly a relief, Brooke can just go without saying anything to Nina.

In less than 3 minutes she was entering the bar. It is semi-crowded, music calmer than usual and this time A’keria is attending the bar with Vanessa. She walks over to, what she already considers her spot, the far right side corner of the bar and sits down. Vanessa is busy sorting teas, so she doesn’t notice her at first, but when she does, her lips stretch into a grin. She’s wearing light denim jeans and a red crop-top. Brooke hopes she didn’t catch her looking at her ass in those jeans, because she really couldn’t help herself.

_God I need to get laid, _she rolls her eyes in her mind.

“Hi, long time no see,” Vanessa greets her, “what can I get ya?”

“Hi, tea please,” Brooke places her handbag on the bar, “how’s it going?”

Vanessa nods and turns to make the tea, “Oh good, it was crowded for a bit, but now it’s filtering out. A’keria keeps getting hit on, which she’s enjoying too much today,” she looks back at A’keria, who’s preparing drinks for other customers.

Brooke laughs, “I guess it’s always nice to receive attention.”

“Trust, we get attention every day, don’t know what’s gotten into her today in particular,” she stops to think about it, “though she didn’t get laid for a while now,” Vanessa shrugs.

_She’s not the only one, _Brooke thinks.

Vanessa places the fruity tea in front of her and reaches behind her to get her a bowl of peanuts.

“Thanks,” she places both of her hands around the cup, “so, is your promised comedy stand up ready?” Brooke smirks.

“Ha! I realize, I’m not that good at stand up, but, “she lifts her finger up, “I have two jokes for you.”

Brooke laughs and rests her head on her hand, “Okay, let me hear them.”

Vanessa straightens her posture, “Where do sick boats go to get healthy?” Brooke’s lips stretch into a smile, “I don’t know, where?”

Vanessa opens her arms, “To the dock!” she exclaims, making Brooke chuckle and cover her eyes.

“Okay, okay, a solid one gotta admit,” she nods, “what’s the other one?”

She grins and breathes in, “Why did the doctor tell the nurse to walk past the pill cupboard quietly?”

Brooke feels like she knows where this one is going but she prefers to hear Vanessa’s delivery, “Why?”

“So she wouldn't wake the sleeping pills!” Brooke thoughts so, but it still makes her laugh.

“Did you just google medical jokes and memorized the first two?” she’s still smiling when she takes a sip of her tea.

Vanessa puts her hair behind her ear, “Actually I went through like 60 jokes, these were the only ones I understood,” she shrugs, “and without big words I wasn’t sure how to pronounce.”

Brooke covers her face, “Oh my god.”

“Told you I’m no comedian, Mami,” Vanessa laughs with her, but her attention taken away by a customer.

Brooke looks down at the peanuts, grabs one and whispers, “But you sure are funny.”

They talk some more about their day and small details from the weekend that weren’t mentioned over text. Brooke doesn’t stay as long because Nina texts her wondering where she is. While waving Vanessa goodbye, she once again gets the fizzy feeling in her stomach, something that has become a regular occurrence in her presence. Brooke doesn’t know what to make of it, so she decides to just enjoy it for now.

…

Vanessa checks her phone just before bed, barely keeping her eyes open, and she finds a text from Brooke. It’s a joke about bartenders. She goes to sleep with a smile.

…

Throughout the week, they started texting more intensely even though Brooke comes to the bar every evening. Conversations range from the what they are eating for lunch to what do they think about the current political atmosphere in the country.

In person they mostly talk about work or, as A’keria would define it, flirt. Vanessa wouldn’t agree, she views it more as easy banter. She learns more and more about Brooke as a person but importantly, with her, she shares about herself which she never does. Only because people in most cases really do speak to bartenders like they’re priests. They want to vent, confess something; have someone listen to them for a second. Vanessa learned this a long time ago and she never minded it. It makes her job interesting and almost different every day. Also, she likes it when she can make someone’s day better with something as simple as listening.

So sharing about her life and have Brooke genuinely interested is a new territory to her. It makes her stop seeing Brooke as a customer, but truly as a new friend. A friend she finds incredibly hot and makes her heart flutter, but she tries to push those thoughts down.

…

It’s Thursday night and everything is the same.

“Seems like I’m really going out tomorrow. They made final plans during lunch today,” Brooke says.

“Oh yeah, you mentioned,” Vanessa is leaning on the bar, eating peanuts from Brooke’s bowl, “why don’t you sound more excited?”

Brooke shakes her head, lifting her right shoulder “No, I am, but I didn’t actually thing they will go through with it. Since they’ve been coupled, we haven’t gone out properly.”

“You want me to save you a table here, if it’s still your first spot?” Vanessa offers.

Brooke’s eyebrow curled a bit, “You can make reservations here?”

“No,” Vanessa chuckles, “but I can make an exception,” corner of Brooke’s lips turning up, “especially since we are very busy on Fridays and I won’t be here to scatter people away for you.”

“Would love to see you get bossy with customers,” Brooke smirks, “but yeah, if it’s not a problem you can save us a booth.”

Vanessa’s cheeks heat up, she clears her throat, “Maybe you will, Silky still hasn’t decided what she wants to do for her birthday nor if she wants to celebrate it tomorrow or on Saturday. A’keria and I had to cover day shifts for both days because god forbid she makes up her mind,” Vanessa rolls her eyes and laughs softly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she did that to make us go out both days.”

Brooke traces the rim of her tea cup, “That’s probably the case.”

“Well anyways, hope you girls have fun tomorrow, but I’m a bit sad I won’t see you till Monday,” Vanessa pouts.

Brooke’s eyes round, getting a sort of sparkle in them, “Yeah?”

Vanessa nods, her smile slightly shy, “You’re making me used to your presence, Mami. What’s gonna be my nightly entertainment when in a week you go back to your regular shifts?” Vanessa is not completely sure why she is getting this transparent with Brooke, maybe it’s the closeness or the calm in the bar. She is worried if they’ll stop talking after Brooke goes back to morning shifts. It’s gotten to a point where she contemplated switching to morning shifts as well, something she very rarely does. The reason being that she cannot be bothered to wake up that early for anything.

“I’ll still sometimes work day shifts and night shifts, but who says I can’t see you on those days?” Brooke’s spoke softly, “And you are aware we can see each other outside this bar?”

Vanessa is not sure what the implication behind that question is, but this between them still feels like a little bubble that can easily burst.

And she is still not ready for it, so she hums and says, “Guess we’ll have to figure it out when it comes to that.”

Brooke nods, eyes looking down at her tea again.

…

Brooke, Katya, Trixie, Nina and Monet met up at the Lady in Red. Since they planned on going to a club after, Brooke wore a tight red mini dress with red heels. Her hair was down, waves looking perfect but effortless, like she didn’t spend an hour on it. She was glad that even though she is basically third wheeling two couples it never felt like that when they were hanging out.

She spotted Ariel and Kameron at the bar as they were entering, who waved at her. Brooke looked to the booths and saw the one with the ‘reserved’ sign. When she mentioned to Vanessa that they were going out tonight, she told her she’ll tell the girls to save them a booth because it’s usually really crowded on Fridays.

Brooke leads them to the booth.

“Agh, only free booth and it’s reserved!” Trixie huffs.

Brooke smiles back at them, “It’s reserved for us. I asked to save us a booth.” Which was a white lie, since Vanessa offered, but her friends don’t need to know that. They would make a big deal out of it, so it’s best to keep it vague.

Katya immediately sits down, followed by Trixie, “Oh great!”

“I didn’t know you could reserve a seat here,” Nina frowns as she sits and opens her arm for Monet to slide in next to her.

“Same, but I guess you can,” Brooke shrugs, “First round is on me, what do y’all want?”

“Tequila!” Monet yelled, Brooke high fived her.

“I second that,” Trixie chimed in, “Same!” Nina nodded.

So Brooke made her way to the bar. Ariel immediately sidestepping Kameron to serve her, “Hey, what can I get you?”

“Hi Ariel, ten shots of tequila, please,” she pulls out cash from her wallet.

“Sure thing, babe, want me to carry it over to you?” she flips ten shot glasses and places them on a tray.

Brooke, waved her hand, “oh no, it’s fine, I can do it.”

She takes the tray from her after Ariel fills the shots and walks back to her friends who all whoop at the sight of drinks.

“I’m surprised Vanessa isn’t working tonight, I was hoping to see her,” Trixie says, Brooke almost jumping at her name.

“Yeah, yeah, same,” Katya waves her finger around, “she’s so fun and I spent too many hours on that bar talking her ear off during my residency,” Katya adds with a chuckle.

_Guess I’m not the only one, huh, _Brooke thinks.

“Uhh, if she was here we would totally drink cocktails, cause that bitch can make a mean one” Monet points out and everybody else snaps their fingers in agreement.

“She’s the owner now, right?” Nina turns to Monet for confirmation, “I think so, yeah, Asia said something about it to me.”

Katya smiles, “Oh really? That’s great, she deserves it, she’s been busting her ass here for at least 7 years.”

“Eleven,” flies right out of Brooke’s mouth, everybody turning to her.

Nina’s squints her eyes, “How do you know that?”

Brooke tries to sound casual, “I’ve been here after work a couple of times, we talked a bit.”

“Right,” Nina doesn’t look convinced, but thankfully the subject is dropped.

The night continues on and they get more drunk by the hour. Around 1pm they barely got into an uber to go to a club.

“Oh noo, Nina, I think we should sleep at my place tonight,” Monet kept one hand around Nina’s waist and pointed at Brooke who was hugging Trixie from behind as they were approaching the club entrance.

Nina laughs, “Brooky definitely reached touchy drunk level, lesbians beware!” Brooke just flashed a middle finger at them and kept hugging Trixie who was mostly making sure they don’t fall over.

The club is pretty packed, music is blasting and the hot upbeat atmosphere just washed over Brooke. They saw some people leave so they literally ran to snatch their table.

As soon as they drank another round of shots, Brooke made her way to the dance floor. They made a semi-circle and just danced, everybody in their element. The two couples were gradually getting steamy with each other, so Brooke started to eye the room, as she moved, to see if there is someone for her. A familiar honey coloured bob caught her attention, just at the far left corner of the dance floor. She walks toward the figure and, yup, that’s Vanessa. Brooke _knows_ that backside.

She is standing with A’keria and Silky. They all have little birthday hats, but Silky has a crown as well. A’keria notices her first, her eyes widen and she hastily grabs Silky’s arm. Brooke doesn’t really understand the reaction, but she’s too drunk to think about it. Only thing she sees right now is Vanessa.

She walks up right behind her, lowers her head so she can hear her, “You following me now?”

Vanessa’s whole body tenses, she turns around, shock written on her face. But she quickly recovers, lips spreading into a smile.

“Yes, put a tracking device on you ages ago,” she says, still not taking a step back from Brooke’s personal space.

Brooke actually giggles at that making Vanessa’s eyes somehow sparkle more than they usually do.

“You drunk, Mami?” Vanessa cocks her head.

Brooke shuts one eye and pinches her fingers, “A little.”

Vanessa shakes her head and smiles, “Where are your friends?”

She just points somewhere on the dance floor, not even turning around to check, “Somewhere, they started third wheeling me, so, luckily, I saw you!” Brooke is very aware that she’s towering over Vanessa throughout this whole conversation, also, this being the first time they are standing right next to each other with no barrier between.

“How is the birthday party going?” Brooke asks her. Vanessa nods, “Great, Silky and A’keria keep taking shots and shooting shots at any man that walks by,” and when she turns back, Brooke following, they notice that Silky and A’keria have disappeared.

Vanessa straightens her neck a bit, starts looking around, but they are nowhere in sight, “Where did the hoes go?” Brooke tries to search for them as well, but her vision is not serving her very well right now.

“Maybe a shot finally landed?” she tries.

Vanessa looks back at her, “Huh?” she frowns, then realizes, “Oh, yeah, maybe.”

“They’ll turn up,” Brooke waves her hand, “in the meantime, you can dance with me!” she offers Vanessa a hand who stares suspiciously at it.

“I’m no dancer like you, Mami,” she looks back at Brooke and again at the outstretched hand

“Pff, I don’t believe that for a second, let’s go,” Brooke beams at her and Vanessa finally takes her hand. 

Even after finding a free spot, Brooke doesn’t let go of her hand. She feels like the buzzing energy, kind of like static, has been gradually building the longer or more they touch and Brooke is getting high on it. The touches are light, passing, but the space between them keeps reducing and Brooke never wanted anyone more. Vanessa did lie, she can definitely dance, which also does not help the imaginary constant hard on she has in her presence.

She places her hand on Vanessa’s waist and pulls her forward, so that there isn’t an inch of space between them. She responds immediately by replacing her leg between Brooke’s. They start slowly grinding against each other until Vanessa decides to make Brooke’s brain short circuit. She swiftly turns around, now her back is against Brooke’s front and her hips start swaying to the music. Brooke’s one hand finds its way to her hip and the other on Vanessa’s stomach.

As the music changes, so do Brooke’s hands roam more. She lowers her head, to test the water, and grazes Vanessa’s shoulder with her nose. When she exposes her neck a bit, Brooke moves along until she reaches her jaw. Tentatively, she places a kiss there and feels Vanessa’s breath hitch. Since she didn’t move away, Brooke places another kiss a bit lower and lower and lower, Vanessa’s grip on Brooke’s hand over her stomach gets almost too hard.

Brooke moves the hand from her hip to her jaw, she traces a light path to her chin, turning Vanessa’s head towards her. As soon as Vanessa opens her eyes and they lock with Brooke’s, she feels like all of her senses zoon only on her.

“I don’t want to complicate things,” she barely says, but Brooke hears her.

“Neither do I,” Brooke leans closer, tips of their noses touching, “but I know I want you right now and it doesn’t have to change anything.”

Vanessa’s eyes search Brooke’s, then she slightly nods, mostly to herself and closes the distance between their lips.

Brooke swears that all the noise from the club just dials to a mummer, all she feels or hears is Vanessa. Their lips tentatively move against each other at first, until Brooke pulls at her bottom lip, opening her mouth, their tongues meeting and making Brooke keen softly.

Vanessa turns around in her arms, without breaking contact, her one hand going in Brooke’s hair and pulling her closer by the waist with the other. She gains full control of the kiss and Brooke lets her.

When Brooke’s hand finds her way to Vanessa’s ass, something she’s been dancing around this whole time, Vanessa gasps in her mouth and breaks the kiss just to ask, “You wanna get out of here?”

Brooke nods, out of breath, “Your place or mine?”

Vanessa pecks her again, Brooke following her lips when she separates them again, “Mine.”

Their hands tangle and they make their way out of the club, Brooke still keeping a short distance from Vanessa.

…

Brooke is extremely glad the ride to Vanessa’s apartment was short, because she was seconds away from ripping her clothes completely off. They fully gave the uber driver a preview what’s going to happen after he drops them off.

They are now stumbling through the hallway, lips connected, their hands roaming and working on removing their clothes.

When they reach her bedroom, trail of clothes is left behind them and they get more and more lost in each other.

Vanessa’s touches are just right, her lips are perfectly soft and the little noises she keeps making are music to Brooke’s ears. She feels like she’s been on a rollercoaster that just keeps going up from the moment their lips touched. It doesn’t feel like a regular one night stand she’s had before, there is a familiarity, despite their bodies never really meeting till now. And when she finally reaches the point of free falling, she doesn’t want it to end.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii, me again! thought I'd be able to do some more writing but uni is really taking up all my time, so here's a little bit until I can continue again.   
<3

Vanessa wakes up abruptly, at first she’s disoriented, not sure what happened last night until she becomes aware of the pressure on her right leg, everything crashing down on her.

She had sex with Brooke, something she was trying to avoid. But when she saw her, looking like an absolute vision in red, and how she danced, how in sync they were, her brain literally handed her heart an eviction notice for her vagina. She can’t say she’s not happy about it, quite the opposite, she’s feeling pleasantly sore and fully relaxed right now. Brooke for sure knew her way around Vanessa’s body, and things she didn’t know, was eager to explore.

Brooke is still blissfully asleep turned toward Vanessa, only their legs tangled.

She wants to move the fallen hairs from Brooke’s face, but also doesn’t want to wake her, not quite ready to see where they stand after this. So she just looks at her for a moment.

Vanessa takes her phone from the nightstand, happy that she plugged it in sometime last night, and almost jumps at the time. It was 11:30am. She’s working a day shift today, which starts at 2pm, she has to get up.

She slowly detangles their legs, removing the duvet from her and when she goes to get up she hears a raspy little voice behind her, “I hope you’re not making a run for it.”

“Being that we are in my apartment, makes it quite difficult,” Vanessa turns back around to find Brooke looking back at her, a faint smile on her face.

“Oh so it was a plan?” She stretches, duvet falling down to her waist, Vanessa’s eyes following its path. “I’m wounded,” she places a hand over her heart.

Vanessa laughs, distracted, then shakes her head and looks back up to Brooke’s face “No, but seriously just saw the time, its 11:30 already.”

“That’s good, there’s plenty of time till you have to go to work,” Brooke says, her hand tracing patterns on Vanessa’s forearm.

She moves closer, lifting herself on her forearm, looking down at Vanessa once again.

“Oh is there?” Vanessa’s voice goes breathy; she moves a strand of hair that falls down on her face, tickling her nose, back behind Brooke’s ear.

Brooke nods, her lips spreading into a grin as she lowers her head down until their noses are touching. She looks into Vanessa’s eyes once again, not moving anymore, giving her an out.

Vanessa doesn’t take it, she lifts up her chin and captures her lips. Brooke immediately opens her mouth, tongues meeting and the hand that was on Vanessa’s stomach moves to her thigh to pull her closer. She traces a path from her thigh to her ass, squeezing it, making Vanessa moan into her mouth. Brooke trails her mouth down her neck, finds the sensitive spot she discovered yesterday and sucks on it. Vanessa’s hips move against her thigh and she exposes more of her neck.

“What do you want baby?” Brooke grazes her earlobe with her teeth, her hand already making its way down her chest and stomach.

Vanessa moves her head to press their lips together, “for you to stop teasing.”

Brooke laughs against her lips, her hand finally where Vanessa wants it.

“You weren’t this impatient last night,” Brooke’s lips brush over her nipple, as she adds a second finger, building a faster rhythm.

Vanessa pulls on Brooke’s hair when she sucks her nipple, soft moans leaving her lips.

“Oh my god,” she’s already close, “Mami, what are we doing?” for some reason her brain catching up with her.

She also notes that Brooke definitely has a thing for Vanessa calling her Mami, if how her hand practically spasmed is any indication.

Brooke doesn’t stop but slows her movement, rubbing her clit gently. She faces her again, “trying to get you off before work,” and kisses her cheek.

Vanessa connects their lips once again, “that’s not what I meant,” she’s interrupted by Brooke pushing in the third finger, making her moan against her lips.

“I know what you meant,” Brooke kisses her, “and you’re overthinking it,” she keeps a relentless rhythm against her spot. Vanessa’s hips push harder against her hand, her fingers digging into Brooke’s scalp.

Her moans get higher, thighs trapping Brooke’s hand, and she comes with her name on her lips.

Brooke removes her hand, kisses up her neck to her cheeks as Vanessa comes down from the high.

When she opens her eyes, she’s met with Brooke’s, “we are two adults who are attracted to each other,” Brooke says, “and we are having fun, I’d say.”

Vanessa nods, fully aware that Brooke’s never been in a relationship and has no plans to be in one. So this just confirms that it maybe doesn’t have to be complicated, since Vanessa is also not ready for a relationship now.

“I’m just worried it will affect the friendship that I’ve been enjoying these last couple of weeks,” Vanessa picks up a non-existent flint from Brooke’s shoulder.

“I see this as a great addition,” Brooke smiles, “we can be friends as we were and have fun on the side if we feel like it.”

Vanessa thinks about it, then shortly pecks her lips, “Okay, but we are setting ground rules Mami.”

Brooke chuckles, moves from Vanessa to her side, hand going back to rubbing her stomach lightly, “Whatever you want.”

Vanessa puts her finger up, “One, no kissing at the bar,” Brooke nods, she lifts up another finger, “no involving any of my co-workers into this and I would prefer if you didn’t sleep with other people but if you do please tell me.”

Vanessa furrows her brow, studying her fingers, “can’t think of anything else, but if you can, feel free to add.”

“Hmm, that all sounds fair, I don’t plan on involving my friends/co-workers into this as well and no, I’m not a double dipper, so don’t worry about it. Though if at any point you want to stop and start dating people again, tell me.”

“Good, okay, great,” Vanessa sits up, “now, I really have to shower,” she bops Brooke’s nose and gets up.

Brooke smiles softly, “Okay, me too,” she takes her phone from the nightstand to check for messages.

Vanessa turns back when she reaches the door of her room, “Not coming with me?” She leans against the door frame, “thought multitasking would speed things up.”

Brooke looks back at her, small frown on her face, “what?”

“You can wash my hair while I’m on my knees,” Vanessa smirks and Brooke throws her phone on the bed, getting up immediately.

…

Later that day, Akeria truly started to annoy Vanessa with the knowing looks she kept giving her. She thanked all the gods that the shift is done soon.

“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, something will fly your way,” Vanessa raised her eyebrow but Akeria just started grinning.

“You know you’ll have to spill it eventually,” Akeria shrugs, “baby I’m not letting this go.”

Vanessa crosses her arms, “What do you want to know?”

“Pff, don’t play,” Akeria scoffed, stepping closer to her, “did you and Brooke finally do it?”

Heat build inside her stomach, memories of the morning running in her mind like a film, “Yes,” she cleared her throat, “went back to my place when you two hoes bailed,” she pauses, “and she slept over.”

Akeria raised her hands in the air, “Yes! Tell me everything!”

“I’m not talking about it here,” she lowered her voice, side-eyeing the customers.

“Ugh, fine, but was it good?” Akeria’s smile turned into a shit-eating grin, “Oh my God you’re already blushing! I’ll take that as a hell yeah.”

Vanessa looked down, smiling as well. Akeria slapped her ass with a towel, “Good, I’m glad, but I’m calling Silky, you are telling us everything after the shift” and Vanessa agreed, turned around and continued working.

…

On the other end, Brooke was watching a medical conference spread out on the couch when Nina came back from work.

“Honey, I’m home!” she greets her, dropping her stuff next to the chair and throwing herself on it.

Brooke chuckles, pausing her video. Nina looked like a train ran over her, she guesses they had too much to drink yesterday.

“You look like shit,” she says as Henry betrays her and goes to sit in Nina’s lap, who immediately starts petting him.

“We drank too much and went home too late,” she put her forearm over her eyes, “I was almost late to work and the whole day I feel like my head will split in half. I’m officially too old for this,” she exhales.

Brooke laughs, “Well at least it was a fun night.” Nina nods in response. “How are Trixie and Katya?”

“Probably better than me, they left around the time you did,” Nina moves her arm from her face, “that reminds me, where the hell did you go?”

She tugged on her earlobe, “Well, I got lost in the crowd when you all started coupling, didn’t feel like third wheeling,” her eyebrows scrunched, “or is it fifth wheeling?”

“Good thing that I decided to sleep at Monet’s, then,” she says.

For a second, Brooke contemplates if she should feign confusion or just be honest. She knows if she says that she slept with Vanessa, Nina will make a big deal out of it, mostly because she’ll assume that her favourite bar is now tainted.

But she also can’t lie to her friend, so she sticks to being vague, “Actually didn’t sleep here, so it would’ve been fine either way.”

Nina shakes her head, smiling, “Of course you didn’t,” she places Henry on the floor and gets up, “well, I’m gonna shower and sleep. See you tomorrow.”

“Good night,” she places the laptop back on her lap and presses play.

…

On Monday, Vanessa got more nervous as the usual time of Brooke’s arrival was closer. Even though they kept texting over the weekend and even today, she hasn’t seen her since Saturday morning. Last text from her was that she got her schedule for the next month with a tired emoji, but didn’t reply anything to Vanessa asking her about it.

She was notified of Brooke entering the bar by the Kameron’s squeal when she saw her. Vanessa should’ve known that Akeria would tell everyone. Surprisingly they didn’t press too much on what was going on, at least not to the extent she was expecting. She knows that her friends only mean well and that they want her to be happy, especially since the whole Aquaria situation. That’s why she pushes the annoyance down when they get a little bit too involved with her life. The only thing she afraid of is that it could affect this with Brooke. Vanessa has the urge to protect it, to keep it close to her since she doesn’t know what to make of it.

“Hi,” Brooke greets her softly as she rounds the bar to sit at her spot.

“Hi,” she smiles at her, feeling her cheeks heat, “Tea?”

Brooke smiles back, nodding, “green this time, if you have it.”

Vanessa gets to it, she tries to calm her stomach that keeps feeling fuzzy, even thinking about drinking tea as well just to sooth herself.

“So, how was your day?” she places the tea in front of her.

And they talk as usual. Brooke tells her what she did at work, mostly gushing about the kids and the conversations she had with them. The only thing that Vanessa thought she’d rant about was the schedule because apparently she has night shifts for the first two weeks, but she was evidently fine with it. Only thing she said is that during the month she realized it’s not that bad to break the routine.

Vanessa tells her about the guy who fought with his wife over the phone at the bar, completely in the wrong, yelling so much she almost had to throw him out. She was passionatelyexplaining why his wife should just leave him when Brooke softly touched the middle finger of the hand Vanessa was leaning on, completely stopping her in her tracks.

“Hey,” she said quietly, Vanessa leaning forward, “you told Kameron, haven’t you?” she smirks, glancing behind Vanessa, Kameron quickly turning away.

“Umm,” Vanessa puts a hand on her hip, “technically I told Akeria and Silky, but they told everyone else.”

“Thought you didn’t want to include your co-workers into this?” Brooke barely suppressing a smile.

“Well, yeah, but I can’t exactly hide it from them,” her voice unsure, because Brooke didn’t look bothered but you never know.

“Oh no it’s fine, I found it funny how she kept trying to subtly check what we were doing,” Brooke chuckles, making Vanessa turn around and direct a glare at Kameron who just raised her hands in defence.

“But this does make me wonder, if I you were to give me a tour of your office,” Brooke’s finger started to move up and down Vanessa’s, “it wouldn’t raise any suspicion?”

Vanessa’s breath hitched. She clears her throat,” no, I guess it wouldn’t.”

Brooke bites her lip and grabs her bag.

She removes her apron, “Kameron, I’ll be back in a bit,” and grabs Brooke’s finger to lead her to the office.

…

Brooke was really trying to contain herself when she saw Vanessa, she really was, but when she gets into a story and her voice gets higher, her eyebrow furring a bit in concertation, Brooke gets weak and just wants to kiss her. And now that she can, it is very hard not to.

So she’s very happy that there’s an office against which’s door she can do it.

“Guess the no kissing at the bar rule is out as well,” Vanessa pants when Brooke’s lips move down her neck.

One of the hands that was pressing her against Brooke moves to envelop her, the other that was on her ass moves to the back of her thigh and she’s lifted up. Brooke carries her across the room, putting her down on the desk.

“Technically, we are not at the bar,” she smirks and connects their lips again. Vanessa sucks on her bottom lip, one hand moving to her hair and slightly pulling it. Brooke applied pressure on her stomach moving her back a bit, hand trailing down between her legs. Vanessa followed her lead blindly, her fingers working on the zipper of Brooke’s pants while she keeps up with the hungry kisses. Even though she really wants to prolong this and take turns she has to get back to work. She almost decides against it when Brooke bites at her lip at the same time as she finally moves her hand down her jeans, applying direct pressure on her clit, but her mind unfortunately recovers. So they get each other off quickly and simultaneously.

They sort themselves out, Vanessa handing her a tissue to remove her smudged lipstick, using one as well.

“Oh how did the call with your mom go?” Brooke asked as she took the tissue from Vanessa starting to gently clean Vanessa’s neck. There were little red smudges, she really should’ve thought through her lipstick choice.

Vanessa’s eyes softened, “oh, good! Everything’s fine, she called me by accident. Though it would’ve helped if she texted that immediately and not make me worry,” she shrugs, “but fine, at least we had a good chat after.”

“Good,” Brooke steps back so Vanessa can get down from the table, “glad everything is alright.” She throws the tissues in the bin.

They walk towards the door and when Vanessa moves to open them, Brooke pulls her by hand and kisses her quickly but firmly.

“What was that for?” Vanessa whispers, hand still on the knob.

“Because this was an even better to end the day,” Vanessa smiling at that, nodding a bit, “and I’ll go now to avoid nosy co-workers, but I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes,” she opens the door and with a wink she’s gone.

…

It was finally Friday before her long weekend off and Brooke was sitting in her office, eating her lunch and texting Vanessa. She was talking about The Bachelor which she recently started watching. Brooke didn’t see one minute of the show, but she pretty much knew everything that was happening due to Vanessa being overly invested. It was entertaining though, especially when she got snippy.

They saw each other every day of the week but the memories of last night are still on a loop in her mind. Brooke was entering the bar when she saw Vanessa walking around collecting empty glasses. She walked up to her, scaring her bit and she barely said hello when Vanessa pulled her close so she can whisper to meet her in the office in minute.

Images of Vanessa going down on her rudely interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Come in,” she says and a second later Nina is entering her office.

“Why are you hiding out here, thought we were having lunch together?” Nina asked, sitting on the chair opposite of Brooke.

“Oh god, I spaced out, sorry,” Brooke put her phone down, “did you already eat?”

“Yes,” she pulls an apple from her coat, “saved this for you though,” she takes a bite out of it and Brooke laughs.

“So what have you been up to today?” Brooke takes a bite of her sandwich.

“Oh nothing much, a slow day for me,” Nina starts but is interrupted by Brooke’s phone dinging. Both of them look at it and when Brooke makes no move to take it, Nina continues, “I have a kidney transplant later, we are waiting for it to arrive,” the phone dings again.

“Is it for that guy, Ryan, the single father?” Brooke takes another bite and Nina nods, “Good, great. He’s been waiting for too long.”

“Yeah, he was so happy and his son…,” Brooke’s phone dings again, “Okay, why are you not getting that? Who’s texting you?” Nina glances at her phone screen but Brooke takes it from the desk and scans through the messages.

“I’ll check it later, it’s fine,” she puts it face down.

Nina narrows her eyes, “You’re acting weird, not just today but in general, what’s going on?”

Brooke pulls her chair closer, grabbing a candy from her bowl, “what do you mean, nothing’s going on.”

“You’re a shitty liar Brooke and I know you too well,” Nina circled a finger at her face, “you’ve been very distracted these days and weirdly relaxed, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you are dating someone.”

Brooke broke eye contact and Nina’s eyes widened, “Shut up, are you?!”

“No! No, I’m not,” she clears her throat, “if you must know, I made a new friend, that’s all,” she started tracing her phone.

Nina still looked suspicious, “Right, a friend,” she raises her eyebrow, “where did you meet this friend?”

It made no sense to stall so she just gets to the point, “It’s Vanessa, from the bar.”

Nina’s jaw literally drops, “What?” she shakes her head, “Wait, Brooke, I swear to God if taint our favourite bar, we are leaving you out. At this age I’m not looking for new spots to drink my coffee and get my monthly alcohol intake, you better not,” she starts wiggling her finger at Brooke, who stops her there.

“Chill. I’m not tainting” she emphasizes the word with air quotes,” the bar. We’re friends and we’re having fun, it’s fine. No need to make a big deal.” She leans back on her chair.

Nina studies her for a second, “Okay.” But it doesn’t look like she believes her.

She doesn’t explain herself nor does she feel like she should, mostly because her friends would take it the wrong way. _Maybe not Katya_, she thinks and locks that up for later. Brooke wouldn’t have done any of the things with Vanessa if it weren’t so easy, if it didn’t feel fine. Things are going in their own flow and she’s happy about it, it’s nothing serious and Brooke’s really enjoying Vanessa’s company. She honestly doesn’t see this going sideways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all thank you all for reading and giving it love! I really appreciate it :D <3
> 
> I've managed to write a bit this weekend so I decided to post, I hope I'll have more time over the next week to write more.  
Also, this is making me consider making a tumblr again, which is probably not good, cause I barely managed to get myself off of it last time hahahha.
> 
> Anyways, hope you like it!

It was Sunday afternoon and Vanessa has been staring at her fridge for 5 minutes now. She is hungry but has no inspiration on what to eat. She huffs and closes it, taking her phone to just order something.

Just as she opened the app, Brooke’s message came through. _-Hey, you busy?_

_-No, lazy day, why?_

_-Wanna come over? I have the apartment for myself today_

Vanessa was surprised by the invitation; she knew Brooke had the weekend off but didn’t expect to be included in the plans. Also, she has never been to her apartment.

_-You have food?_

_-Currently making lasagna, enough for two ;)_

Another surprise, Brooke can cook. She smiled and texted – _Send me your address_

She took a quick shower, called an Uber and 15 minutes later she was in front of her apartment.

“Love the get up,” Vanessa comments on Brooke’s ‘Kiss the Chef’ apron when she opens the door for her.

Brooke looks down on it, chuckling, “Charming, right?” she lets Vanessa in, walking toward the kitchen. “Monet got it for Nina because she always somehow stains her clothes when cooking, _and_, she still doesn’t use it,” she continues, rolling her eyes.

Vanessa looks around the apartment, taking it in, she likes that there is soft music playing in the background. “I mean, who uses aprons other than moms and actual chefs? I know I don’t, that’s why we have washing machines,” she says, making Brooke laugh.

“I hope you don’t mind cat’s in the kitchen, but Henry likes to be where I am,” Brooke points at the cat lying on one of the chairs.

At the sight of it, Vanessa actually squeals. She forgot that she finally gets to meet the cats.

“Bitch, I don’t care,” she immediately crouches to pet him, getting purrs as soon as she scratches behind the ears, “where’s Apollo?” she looks around, cat nowhere in sight.

“Probably in my bedroom,” Brooke places lasagna back in the oven, “or hiding somewhere.”

Henry stretches out, “God you’re so cute,” she keeps petting him, “and soft”, she turns to Brooke who’s just leaning against the counter looking at her funny, “I love him already.”

At that he stands up and scurries away, so Vanessa pouts as she gets up.

“Don’t take it personally, he’ll be back.”

She nods and looks at the oven, “When’ll the food be done?”

“Knew you just came for food, tsk”, Brooke shakes her head, a small smile breaking when Vanessa moves closer to her.

“Of course,” she mocks, “and for the kitties.”

“In about 15 minutes,” she points at the timer, then straightens, moving away from the counter and goes to remove the apron when Vanessa stops her, “what are you doing?”

Her brows scrunch up, “getting out of this, no point of it anymore,” she says, more in a questioning tone.

Vanessa takes the strings that are loose now and pulls on them, “but I didn’t kiss the chef,” making Brooke’s lips spread into a grin before she kisses her.

Brooke breaks the kiss to actually remove the apron, but pulls her back immediately and they make their way into the living room. She navigates them blindly through to room, not wanting to break them apart. She doesn’t know how she didn’t jump her from the second she walked into the apartment. When they reach the couch, suddenly Vanessa spins them around and practically shoves Brooke down on it. She moves to sit on her lap, knees bracketing Brooke’s hips.

“Wow, aprons do it for you?” Brooke pulls her closer by her waist, voice already breathless.

Vanessa chuckles, placing both hands on Brooke’s cheeks, pecking her briefly, “you do it for me,” she kisses her again, “unfair how hot you are.”

Brooke moves one hand under her shirt, lightly scratching her back, making her lose her train of thought for a second, “and then you drop this bomb on me,” her back curve under Brooke’s hand, “that you can cook. You save little kids, look like this all the time _and_ cook” she lightly traces her cheekbone with her thumb and kisses her again, “Where did you come from?”

Brooke laughs into her chest, blushing only a bit. Then she squeezes Vanessa to her and flips them down on the couch, with her on top, “I can do something else too,” she smirks and pulls Vanessa’s tights along with her panties down. 

“Yes you can,” last word comes out high, chest arching up in surprise because Brooke immediately sucks on her clit. Vanessa can barely catch her breath when Brooke presses one finger in and her other hand finds the way to her breasts, squeezing her nipple.

Vanessa has never been with someone who can be so intense during sex, especially in the quickies they usually have. So, she absolutely sees stars when she comes, whole body shuddering.

Brooke places a small kiss on her before she pulls her panties and tights back up, Vanessa’s breathing starting to calming down.

“And for the record,” she moves on top of her again, “you are unfairly hot as well,” she kisses her just beneath her jawline.

Vanessa laughs, “I mean-,” she starts, but is interrupted by the timer, “Food!” she exclaims, making Brooke chuckle.

“Timed this perfectly,” Brooke gets up, offering a hand to help her up as well, Vanessa immediately taking it.

They go back to the kitchen, Vanessa sitting down at the table while Brooke sets everything up.

“Umm, that smells so good, Mami,” Vanessa deeply inhales when Brooke places a plate in front of her.

Brooke sits down across from her, “Thanks,” she takes a bite of it. She’s quite proud of herself, it turned out really good, not that it usually doesn’t, but she had admittedly put a bit more effort today. She waits for Vanessa’s reaction to it.

After the first bite, she outright moans, “Okay, the lasagna I usually order has now lost all the respect,” she takes another bite, “so good,” she cover’s her mouth as she says.

“Do you not cook for yourself?” Brooke asks, looking a bit concerned.

Vanessa takes a sip of water, “Of course I do, but not every day,” she places another piece on the fork and pauses, “I guess I stopped after my aunt moved. We’d take turns cooking over the week and on Sundays we’d do something together, cause, for her, Sunday is a day for the family,” she finally takes the bite, “so we’d do something fancy and spend the day together.”

Brooke listens intently to her, eyes softening, “Is that why you still take Sundays off?”

Vanessa thinks about it. “Yeah, not even on purpose, it’s just how I’m used to,” she then laughs shortly to herself, “weird realizations to have over lasagna.”

“I mean, I get that, Christian family here as well, so Sunday was also a day you spend with your family.” Brooke looks down on her plate, “though was not a fan of them.”

“Why not?”

Brooke straightness her shoulders a bit, “to put it lightly, besides it being church oriented, it included a lot of, khm, conservative language.”

Vanessa’s face fell, “I’m sorry,” she hesitates before she asks, “do they know that you’re gay?”

“Yes. Not exactly happy about it, mom still hopes it’s a phase, my sister claims she knew from the start so that’s good, father not in the picture so no opinion there,” she shrugs, “Though, we don’t really talk about it with the rest of the family.”

“That kinda sucks, Brooke,” she reaches across the table to squeeze her hand briefly.

Brooke smiles faintly at the gesture, “It’s not ideal, but it’s better than what I expected.”

Vanessa can’t even imagine that situation for her. Her parents didn’t even bat an eye when she came out. Even her relatives didn’t care and then her aunt came out as well, apparently Vanessa giving her the courage, which made the situation even better.

They sat in silence for a bit, eating the last of the food, when Brooke spoke again, “I just realized I don’t know the reason behind the name of the bar. Is there one?”

Vanessa nodded,” actually there is, are you ready for it?”

“Mhm, tell me,” Brooke leans forward.

Before she speaks, she takes a deep breath, “So, okay, my aunt divorced my uncle because she realized when he started talking about having kids that it would be unfair to everyone to go with it, especially since she realized she’s gay, but none of us knew that was the reason at the time. He kept stalling the divorce, hoping she’d change her mind, and after almost a year of separation, papers were finalized and she was free. So, she decided to treat herself with a week in a resort on the Bahamas,” she paused to check if Brooke is following and she was. Her head that was in a slight tilt, nodding as if to encourage her to keep going.

“Anyways, she apparently met this beautiful inspiring woman who was staying at the same resort. She spent the whole week with her and it changed her, never fully going into the details of how, but when she got back we could tell that something happened. One of the things she did speak about was that the woman motivated her to pursue her dream, which nobody knew of, to go to America and that the bar she planned on opening in Puerto Rico, she can surely open in America. Los Angeles was her suggestion, since she had done most of her business from there and would like to see my aunt again someday. And because the last time they saw each other, she was wearing a long red dress that made her look like a goddess, aunt’s words, bar is now called Lady in Red.”

Brooke leaned back on her chair, a bit shocked, “That sounds like it’s straight up from a movie. I admire her courage though, but I can’t believe she named the bar after someone she knew for a week.”

Vanessa clears her throat, fully starting to grin, “It gets better.”

“How?” Brooke’s brows furrow, then rise up, “No. Shut up. If this is going where I think it is, I swear to God.”

“I don’t know what you are thinking, _but_, my aunt was sad that they never exchanged numbers nor real names. So she just told herself that one day they’ll see each other. Which I, personally, ate up, being a hopeless romantic and all,” she shrugs, and Brooke interrupts her.

“Vanessa, did they see each other again or no?” Brooke rotates her palm, growing impatient.

“They are married now.”

Brooke actually put her hands on her cheeks in shock, “No they are not!”

Vanessa starts to laugh, “Yup, I was in shock as well. Two years ago, that lady, Rosalie is her name, just waltzed into the bar one day. My aunt recognized her instantly, almost jumped over the bar to go to her. I couldn’t believe my eyes. But from that point forward, they were inseparable, gotten married a year later and since Rosalie is loaded because she has her own business, she suggested they just retire and go live in her house in Spain.”

“And they just went?” she asks, Vanessa nodding, “That’s crazy to me.” Brooke leans back on the table.

“It was crazy for me too, which I told her, but when she was leaving she just said to me that I’ll know when I meet my lady in red. Didn’t understand what she meant at the time, cause I was still with Aquaria, but about five months after that, I got it.” Excitement left her voice gradually, at the last part she broke eye contact and looked out of the window.

Brooke didn’t know what to make of Vanessa’s expression at the moment. If she was still longing after her ex or if she’s remembering the hurt or is it something else entirely.

She reached across the table to lightly drag her finger over Vanessa’s forearm, who’s eyes snapped back to Brooke. Eyes clearing, a soft smile appearing.

“What happened there?” she asked, finally having the opportunity. Vanessa never went into details why they broke up and this was the first time she said her name.

Vanessa placed her hand over Brooke’s, “That’s for another day, I think I talked enough for today.”

She could see that Brooke was a bit disappointed, but that quickly changed when she got up and went to her side and said, “Plus I’m craving dessert.”

Brooke immediately moving the chair away from the table, to make room for her to sit in her lap. When she sat down, Brooke’s hands cupped her ass right away and Vanessa connected their lips. They exchanged a few hungry kisses before Brooke grabbed her thighs and lifted them up, taking them to her bedroom.

…

She was walking towards the nurse’s station to get some paperwork when she bumped into Nina and Katya who looked like they were searching for her.

“There you are! I swear you’re easier to find when there’s a thousand people here,” Nina pulled her aside, Katya standing next to her.

Brooke’s nervousness spiked up, “What? Did something happen?”

“Pff, no. Just that we are flying solo to the conference over the weekend,” Katya gestured the flying motion with her hand.

She calmed down immediately. Apparently her friends are just bored during the night shift.

“Okay?”, Brooke questioned, not seeing how this is big news, yes it would’ve been more fun if Trixie and Yvie were going as well, but Brooke liked going either way. Conferences were her chance to network with some of the best surgeons, to see some of the new techniques first hand and there was free food and drinks. She could go by herself, and she has in past, it doesn’t matter to her.

“Well, I’m here to make sure you don’t bail on me. I hate going to these things alone. Talking to people constantly, ugh,” Katya made a face, “Trixie is my buffer, she can always talk and I can enjoy everything else. But you miss thing,” she pointed her finger at Brooke, “always just get lost.”

Brooke rolls her eyes, “yeah cause that’s work and I spend my time there efficiently, I choose who I want to speak to and where I want to participate. You’re welcome to stick with me throughout it, but I can’t promise I’ll be the buffer.”

Katya’s eyes narrowed, “Fine,” then she snaps her fingers, “Oh, and I’ll probably skip the after party, so you’ll be out of a wing woman.”

Nina snorts at that, Brooke’s attention snapping to her, “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue this time.”

Katya didn’t know what was going on so she assumed something else, “I know she realistically doesn’t need it but it’s still more fun.”

Brooke discretely pinched Nina’s arm, “Hah, yeah, anyways I have somewhere to be, so is that all?”

Nina smugly nodded, “Yup,” and before she continued, Brooke was on her way.

…

On the other side of the street, Vanessa was feeling very chipper to a point where Kameron kept looking at her in concern.

“Okay, I’ll have whatever you’re having,” she comments as she shakes the cocktail.

Vanessa turns to look at her, putting the money in the register, “What?”

“You have this permanent smile on your face, every time I look at you I’m expecting birds to fly from somewhere and start singing,” she pours the cocktail in the glass.

She laughs at that, “What are _you_ on?”

Kameron exhales, “Fine, I can make my own guess and say that Brooke will make an appearance soon and you’re acting like an excited puppy.” She ends it on a smirk.

“No, that’s not it,” Vanessa adjusts her shirt, “Brooke is actually working night shifts this week so she won’t make an appearance.”

“Hmm,” Kameron studies her and Vanessa interjects, “Can’t I just be in a good mood?”

She then softly smiles, “You can, but that not it and we both know it,” she looks down laughing quietly then addresses Vanessa again, “enjoy this part Vanj, it’s the best.”

Vanessa doesn’t know if her co-worker actually is on something anymore, “Enjoy what?”

She laughs again, walking away from her.

“Kameron, what are you talking about?” But she doesn’t answer her.

…

It was Wednesday, and Brooke was already not having a good time.

She practically stormed out of the patient’s room, Nina immediately following her even though she really doesn’t have the energy to have this conversation again. Right before she reached her office, Nina caught up to her.

“You are overreacting,” first words she said to her, almost making her turn around and leave.

“I’m not overreacting; how many times are we going to have this conversation?” Brooke crosses her arms.

Nina crosses her arms as well, “what conversation? You brought me there for a consult, I expressed my opinion.”

Okay, that’s on Brooke, she should’ve asked her in private first, but she thought that after the last time, this wouldn’t happen again.

“Yes, but you kept sugar-coating the situation to the parents, every time I said something. I was trying to explain the situation how it is, especially since they literally brought their kid to the ER because apparently he has liver failure which the doctors didn’t notice before, and you kept making it seem like everything was going to be alright. It got to the point where they started asking you questions because I looked like a bad guy in there even though I’m their doctor!” her voice got to a whisper-yell, explaining riling her up again.

Nina threw her arms up, “Oh come on! What was I supposed to do, mum was crying the whole time, poor dad looked so shaken up, and the kid was so scared. I don’t understand how I’m suddenly in the wrong, I can’t just stoically deliver the news like you apparently can. It’s a kid for gods sake!” she whisper-yelled too.

Brooke felt like she’d been slapped, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Nina now took a small step back, “Nothing, it’s just I didn’t expect you to still be that formal with your patients. Shouldn’t you use a different approach than with an adult?”

Her jaw clenched, she was once again in this situation. Nina questioning her heart in the matter which always hurt more than when Yvie did it. Only people who are never on her case with how she treats her the patients are nurses. Nina was a happy-go-lucky doctor, everyone loved her; patients, staff, family members. She appreciated her friend, admired her for how she made everyone feel better about the situations they were in and always kept a positive attitude. But her friend still not appreciating how Brooke does things. She’s not cold nor formal with her patients, but when it comes to explaining the situation and the hard decisions, she makes sure that everyone knows exactly where they stand and what are the options to move forward. So that they can prepare for every possible outcome. Because the important news should be delivered clearly.

“Nina, I swear to god if you throw the ‘those are kids’ card in my face again, we are going to have a serious problem,” her eyes shooting daggers, “I am very aware who my patients are and how to treat them. Do you think this is an easy job?” she leans forward slightly, Nina’s eyes widening. “If I did what you do, it would lead to a lot of heartbreak, which are hundred times worse here. It would lead to miscommunication and unreadiness, because, yes, those are kids and parents never want to think something bad can happen.”

“But Brooke-“ Nina starts to interject but she just raises her hand, “No, we had this conversation already and I’m not discussing this again. You don’t see me giving you pointers on how to do your job.”

“Fine,” Nina exhales, looking disappointed, “Forgive me for suggesting to be more warm with your patients.” At that Brooke shakes her head in disbelief and goes to her office, almost slamming the door.

After all this time, after being so meticulous in her job and doing everything she can to be the best she can be, she’s still attacked for lacking warmth. Which she doesn’t lack, they just don’t see her like that. She tries to make the kids feel safe and she’s there for the parents if they need support or help through it. Brooke makes sure to know their names, she gives them all the information necessary to minimize the fear, she adjusts to the kids needs every time and most of all she finds a way to make them better. But all her friends see her when she is being professional.

Her phone dings, a message from Vanessa. Heat from the fight that was burning her insides, suddenly softened to a feeling of warmth in her chest.

_-Flower lady came back again, but she brought a different one today!_

Brooke chuckles, _-No way! What did she bring?_

Few moments later_, -Lithops something, I had to ask her the name of the plant because you need to see it in case she doesn’t bring it again. Google it. _

She opened her browser, excited to see what it is, and typed in the name of the plant. On the first picture she saw, she burst out laughing. It looked like a little butt in a pot, some versions looking even more explicit.

_-Oh my god. I cannot believe I missed that!, _She replied to her, still laughing to herself.

_-I know! I tried taking a sneaky pic but then realized it was a bit creepy._

Now Brooke felt bad again, it was already the third day in a row that she wasn’t at the bar because of her night shifts and she might actually miss Vanessa even though they constantly text. Then she remembers that she’s leaving tomorrow for the conference and won’t be back till Saturday late night, which means she won’t see her for a week.

She looks at the clock, it’s 3:15am.

_-Are you finished with work?_

_-Yes, why?_

Brooke contemplates asking, thumb hovering over the send button, but after a breath she presses send_-Do you want to make a quick visit while I take a break? _

It takes a few seconds for Vanessa to reply, which makes her start regretting the text. Questioning if it was ridiculous and almost backtracking when a message comes through.

_-Sure, I can make a quick stop, just tell me where I can find you_

All of her nervousness leaving her at once, _\- Just come to the main entrance, I’ll wait for you there_

_-Be there in 5_

Brooke takes the cigarettes from her drawer, then gum and puts them in her coat. Before she leaves she looks at herself in the mirror, fluffs out her hair and applies lip balm.

She makes her way out, sitting on a bench that’s a bit more secluded, street lamp only casting a dim light over it.

Just as she lights her cigarette, she notices a small figure approaching, after few more steps she recognizes that it is Vanessa.

Brooke waves a bit to draw her attention, Vanessa squinting in her direction then when she realizes it’s her, a big smile takes over her face. She makes her way over to Brooke.

“I still can’t believe you, as a doctor, smoke.” She says and Brooke gets up to give her a quick hug. They sit back down on the bench.

“Yeah well, medical school is to blame,” she shrugs and takes another drag of the cigarette.

Vanessa hums, shifting to sit on her leg, “So I’m guessing it’s eventful today.”

Brooke raked her fingers through her hair, “Kinda,” she pauses a thought suddenly nagging her, “If your kid gets really sick out of the blue, what would you want?”

Her eyes widen, clearly not expecting the question, “For them not to be sick anymore?”

“I was too vague, sorry, would you want to know everything that’s happening and possible outcomes or would that be too much for you?”

Vanessa’s head tilted, “I’m not sure where this is coming from, Mami, but hypothetically, I would probably demand all the information. It’s already too much when your kid is sick.”

Brooke felt her stomach unknot and nodded.

“What happened?” Vanessa turns more toward her.

She throws her cigarette away and starts, “nothing just, Nina was on my case how I was too formal with the parents when I delivered the news of their kid’s liver showing failure. She basically called me too cold, because I like to present all the information how it is and go through all the options for moving forward, but everyone seems to think that because I’m a paediatric surgeon I should be softer.” She looks down, expecting agreement from Vanessa.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Vanessa speaks after a moment, “It’s going to make the matters worse. I would hate it if you made it seem like it’s not as bad as it seems and then have my kid suffer or even worse, die, without me being prepared.”

Brooke looks up at her, feeling lighter by each passing second.

Vanessa smiles at her, placing her hand over Brooke’s knee, “I don’t think you’re cold. I think this particular job is very hard and you do it the best you can. At the end of the day, only thing that matters to the parents is that you make the little ones better.”

“Thank you,” she covers Vanessa’s hand with her own, “How’d your day go? Except flower lady making a comeback which I’m devastated I missed.”

“Oh same old, was alone today cause it was Kameron’s day off. Monet kept me company for a bit after she dropped off Nina to work. No entertaining customer story today, those flowers are honestly the highlight of my shift.” She smiles, then continues, “Oh! But I did start seriously thinking about expanding the bar to more of a pub. Cause I have that huge room next to the storage, it could maybe be a kitchen, so we could serve food as well.”

“That sounds great! You think you could finance that now?” Brooke’s brain immediately going to logistics of it.

“Yeah, my financial advisor told me that I have space to improve or expand if I want to cause business is really booming.” Vanessa nods, her excitement spreading over to Brooke.

“I don’t mean to impose, but have you thought about hiring maybe more staff, you wouldn’t have to work so much?” Brooke offers.

Vanessa thinks about it, “I mean, that’s definitely a possibility, but if I’m honest, I really like doing this job. I don’t know what I would do with my extra free time,” she laughs a bit.

Brooke sure has an idea what she could do with her free time, images flooding her mind all at once, genuinely scaring her. She blinks rapidly to stop them, but the one vision of Vanessa being there in her apartment, snuggled with her cats when she comes back from work stays almost stuck until she speaks up again.

“Plus If I-“she starts but is interrupted by a voice, “Brooke?” They both startle and pull their hands away, she wasn’t even aware they were still holding on her knee, when the person comes closer.

“Katya, hey,” Brooke greets her, suddenly feeling nervous. Vanessa turns around as well, her face taken over by her ‘customer service’ expression that Brooke learned to recognize.

“Oh! Vanessa! Haven’t seen you in forever!” a smile takes over Katya’s face when she sees her then it quickly changes to concern, “Is everything okay? Do you need something?” 

Vanessa laughs, “Same! You’ve fully replaced me with Shuga. Everything is fine, I’m good, just visiting.”

Katya visibly relaxes and comes back from the doctor mode, “Oh good,” then she looks between them, Brooke already feeling a blush creeping up her neck. She frowns, clearly trying to figure out what’s going on.

But she is doesn’t get a chance because Vanessa gets up, “Well, it was good seeing you, but I should probably go home.”

“Okay, good seeing you too.” Katya still looked confused as she sat down next to Brooke where Vanessa was.

Brooke looked after Vanessa, who turned around and smiled softly at her with a small wave.

…

It was the end of the first day of the conference and Brooke felt like she was in her element. This year it was very productive for Brooke and Katya was actually a great companion for these events. They mingled just enough, both establishing cues when they wanted to be saved from a situation. Some of the seminars they both wanted to attend overlapped so she had someone to actually discuss what was being said which was a great.

They were getting up to leave after they finished dinner, when Katya spoke up, “I actually had fun today. We make a good team.”

Brooke smiles, “was just thinking the same thing.”

They headed out of the restaurant area, “I was deciding if maybe I’ll join you for the after party, but the food got me so sleepy, so the team is disbanding for today.” Katya rubbed her stomach, yawning.

“I don’t think I’ll go either,” Brooke comments. She’s really not in a mood, it was extremely fun when she was a resident, especially because she always got laid, those after parties often were like a real life version of Tinder. But, tonight, having a long bath in the huge tub she has in her hotel room and going to sleep, sounds like literal heaven.

“Really? But you alw-,” Katya starts but is interrupted by a tall brunette coming from the main entry, “Well, well, well, look who it is,” she slowly struts over to them.

“Oh I see,” Katya huffs out a laugh.

“Hi Lauren,” Brooke greets her long-time acquaintance. She’s met her 5 years ago, at a conference similar to this, they bonded over trash talking a doctor that was always on the line of inappropriate when talking to any woman in the conference. They hooked up that night and since they’re both very similar in their ‘romantic’ aspects of their lives, that continued to be a thing every time they were at the same place. Brooke would, because of her, always state that ob-gyns are the best in bed.

She moves her long hair behind her shoulder, eyes mischievous already, “I didn’t see you in there, gotta say, you just made my night.”

Katya pressed the button to call the elevator, wanting to just escape the heavy flirting she knew was going to start.

Brooke laughs, “Oh you were already looking for me? Usually I interest you when the after party starts.”

Lauren smirks, “Baby you know you always have my attention, parties are just the finishing line.”

Katya tries not to gag and breathes out in relief when elevator finally opens. They all walk in, Katya moving right in front of the door to make as much space she can between them.

Lauren steps in front of Brooke, sweet smelling perfume filling her nostrils.

“We meeting there?” her voice drops in volume, she steps closer, fully in Brooke’s space.

Elevator stops and Katya leaves them. They have two more floors.

She brackets Brooke in with her hands, leaning in to whisper, nose slightly tickling her ear “Or should we just skip it this time?” 

…

Back in LA, Vanessa just started her shift when Silky came in to visit.

“You know I hate it when you two hoes work the same shift, then I have to haul my ass here for my daily entertainment.” She sat down at the bar, Akeria already handing her a drink.

“Oh poor Silk, has to walk for 5 minutes to get free drinks,” Akeria teases her.

Vanessa laughs, walking away from a customer to them. “What’s she complaining now?”

“Oh nothing important,” Akeria waved her hand off.

Silky looks around, “Where’s your lady, Vanjie? Do I finally get to meet her properly?”

“She’s not mine and no, she’s at a conference in San Francisco.” Brooke texted her an hour ago that she’s eating dinner and that she’s having a blast with Katya. Also wished her a good night and said that she’ll go to an after party later. Vanessa sent her a picture of her pouting, wishing she was out and not working. Which is partly true, mostly she’d like if she was there with her or that Brooke was here, but that feels too loaded.

“So she’s outta town, surrounded by hot shot doctors and you didn’t put ‘claimed property’ on that fine ass? Are you insane, I’ve seen enough hospital dramas to know what happens there. Someone gonna snatch her.” Silky says, making Akeria laugh.

“You are the one who’s insane here,” Vanessa chuckles, but she feels her stomach clench a bit, “I told you, we are not in a relationship, she can _technically_ do whatever she wants.” She takes a glass and starts drying it, harsher than usual.

Silky pursues her lips, narrowing her eyes.

“But baby, we both know you don’t want her to do whatever she wants,” Akeria chimes in.

She is not wrong, Vanessa doesn’t want her to be with someone else, but she also knows she has no right to ask that. Even though she won’t admit it, she’s been thinking of various possibilities since yesterday, but she had to keep her head in check.

“No,” she places the glass down, sill looking at it, “no I don’t, but I can’t do anything about it.”

“Wait you mean to tell me you never established that you’re exclusive? I thought you were just being secretive about it?” Silky leans on the bar, looking shocked.

Vanessa puts a hand on her hip, “I mean, kinda? I did say that I wouldn’t like her to sleep with other people while she’s sleeping with me and she said that she doesn’t do that.”

Akeria shakes her head, “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Both of you are making me panic for no reason! It’s fine, if she sleeps with someone, she sleeps with someone and it is what it is,” Vanessa crosses her arms, shrugging.

“But you like this girl, don’t tell me you don’t,” Silky raises her eyebrow, “and you’re still not doing anything about it. It was cute in the beginning but it’s been more than a month and you’re still playin dumb.”

“Cause it’s still not the time, ugh,” Vanessa inhales looking up, trying to stop her stomach from clenching again, “look, yes, I like her, but she does not want a relationship and my gut is telling me to let it be. I can’t explain it to you but I feel like it’s alright, so please, no more Brooke talk, okay?” She looks pointedly at both of them until they both nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Tell me what you think :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!  
Thank you again for all the comments!   
This update was quick. Had some free time, so here you go!  
Hope you like it <3

_“We meeting there?” her voice drops in volume, she steps closer, fully in Brooke’s space. _

_Elevator stops and Katya leaves them. They have two more floors. _

_She brackets Brooke in with her hands, leaning in to whisper, nose slightly tickling her ear “Or should we just skip it this time?” _

“I was actually planning on skipping it,” Brooke whispers, turning her head towards Lauren, their noses almost touching. Her eyes were trained on Brooke’s lips, “great, more time to catch up then.” She smirks before she presses Brooke against the wall and kisses her.

Her brain blanks, she reciprocates the kiss automatically, her hands grab on the handle behind her.

Elevator dings and they separate, Lauren pulling her by the hand. “Both on the same floor, I’d call that fate.” She leads her past Brooke’s room, down the hallway to hers.

When she swipes her card to unlock her door, Brooke’s heart clenches and her mouth suddenly tasting like lead.

She looks at the hand holding hers, feeling unfamiliar, and then up at Lauren. For a second, she expects a different eyes looking back at her, and when she realizes they aren’t, her whole being stops. _No, _the only thing sounding in her mind.

Lauren tugs her forward, but when Brooke doesn’t move an inch, she frowns.

“I can’t do this.”

She laughs, surprised, “What?”

Brooke frees her hand, “I can’t sleep with you tonight.”

Lauren takes a step forward, leaning against the doorframe, “are you on your period or something?”

That actually makes Brooke laugh, but doesn’t ease the tension that is currently holding her entire body, “No. If I do this it will ruin a potentially good thing.”

“Oh,” her eyebrows rise, a small smile appearing, “never thought I’d see the day.”

Brooke just nods, quiet chuckle escaping her throat.

“In that case,” Lauren pushes off the doorframe and opens her door again, “I have a party to get to. Good luck with everything,” she winks and goes in her room.

For a moment, Brooke stares at her door. She was completely ready to go through with it if her brain hadn’t started working or maybe it was her heart that took control, she doesn’t know. She takes a deep breath and makes her way to her hotel room.

She lets the tub fill while she takes her clothes and make up off. A small bottle of red wine in the mini fridge crosses her mind and seems like a good way to wash out the taste in her mouth. After pouring herself a glass and taking her phone, she gets in the bathtub.

A message from Vanessa from 10 minutes ago first thing she sees, _-Have fun at the party!_

Then she sees the picture she’d sent her before, almost making Brooke choke on her food and earning suspicious glances from Katya. It was proper torture and a gift to be graced by Vanessa’s pouty face. She even almost set it as her contact photo.

All of it makes the feeling of guilt just increase. She knows that she didn’t go through with anything, but the intention and that short kiss, feel like betrayal to her. They both said it’s not a relationship, but Brooke also knows that if she slept with Lauren, it never would be. Even though she’s still not ready for that, for the first time she feels like she could be.

She tries relaxing, hoping the soft music will calm her mind and stop the uneasiness, but it doesn’t. So she throws caution in the wind and dials her number, knowing she’s currently working.

After a few rings, Vanessa picks up, “Hey, everything alright?” her voice sounds concerned and is almost drowned out by the noise, but it’s still the best thing Brooke heard all day.

“Yeah,” she answers, realizing she didn’t plan anything; doesn’t know what to say.

She hears noise gradually quiet, until there’s silence. Vanessa probably going to the office.

“What’s up?” Vanessa asks.

“Nothing, just taking a bath.” Brooke responds, making circles in the water.

There is a beat of silence and then, “Are you drunk?” Brooke can almost hear a smile in her voice.

“No, why’d you think that?”

“I don’t know, didn’t really expect a call from you, not that I mind,” she pauses, “are you sure everything is alright?” her voice softening.

“Yes… I don’t know, I guess,” she wants to tell her that, no, everything is not alright, but that’s not a conversation to have over the phone, also wants to tell her that she just needed to hear her talk for a second, to stop her feelings from suffocating her, but she can’t. So she settles on, “I guess I might miss you.”

She hears Vanessa gasp and then there’s a quieter, “I might miss you too,”.

Warmth spreads over her chest, and her thoughts slowly stop churning. Suddenly feeling very sleepy.

When she speaks again, her voice is incredibly sweet, Brooke never hearing it like that before, “I think you should go to sleep, Mami.”

She closes her eyes, nodding, her voice distant, “Yeah, I think I should.”

“I’ll talk to you later. Good night, Brooke.” Vanessa says.

“Good night.” Brooke waits a second, then ends the call.

…

In the morning, she wakes up feeling physically rested but her mind once again occupied with yesterday’s events. The sour feeling is still on her tongue, but not from the wine she drank. This was first time she felt this kind of guilt and she didn’t know how to make it go away.

She gets up, does her morning routine before getting dressed and goes down for breakfast.

Katya is already sitting at the table near, speaking to a someone. Brooke goes to the buffet, taking two slices of toast, butter and jam. Everything else looks too much, her stomach not ready to process food. Before she goes to the table, she takes a small fruit bowl, hoping she’ll be able to eat it.

“Oh hi,” Katya greets her when she sits down.

Brooke directs her a small smile, “Good morning.”

Katya observes her plate, “You feeling good? Never seen your plate that empty.”

It was definitely true, Brooke could eat, especially in the morning. Her appetite even reduced over the last couple of years. When she was still in her twenties, her biggest cost was the food she ate. Alongside working practically 24/7 when she was a resident and determination not to stop dancing, she was constantly hungry.

She butters her toast, “Yeah, just not that hungry.”

“Would’ve expected an appetite after last night, which I’m sure was athletic,” she took a bite of a bagel, covering her mouth as she spoke, “or are you a snacker after sex?”

Brooke felt herself twitch unnoticeably, a pang hitting her once again. She almost bitterly took a bite of her toast.

“Nothing happened last night. Had a bath and went to sleep.”

Katya’s eyebrows rise, she knows that that was not an expected answer, all of her friends were aware of Lauren. Nina called her ‘your sex buddy’ from the beginning, until it was her room next to theirs and she couldn’t sleep from the noises. After that Nina made it clear that after what she heard coming from that bedroom, she could never look Lauren in the eyes.

“What? Why?” she asks, turning the chair more towards her.

Brooke didn’t even know how to explain, not that it was complicated, but it was difficult for her to voice. Only thing making her slightly braver was the fact that it was Katya.

Before she even collects her thoughts, Katya speaks again, “Is it the girl on the phone?”

Brooke’s eyes widen, not expecting that at all, “Yes,” making Katya nod. “I knew it; you never use your phone during work. But you’ve had it in your hand the whole time, imagine my shock, seeing you actually text during a presentation!”

She laughs, Brooke is like that. Most of the time her phone is always on silent and she honestly rarely uses it.

“Lauren and I kissed though and I almost slept with her,” Brooke rushes out.

A small smile that was on Katya’s face vanishes, but her expression turns to understanding, “Okay,” she takes in Brooke’s worried expression that doesn’t probably fully portray her feelings and she continues, “are you in a relationship?” she waits for a response. Brooke shakes her head.

“I’m assuming you want to be, so don’t tell her.” Brooke did not expect that. Katya continues, “you made a minor error but it showed you something. A small kiss is still bad, but taking who you are into a consideration, it’s not something to beat yourself over. As long as you don’t do it again.”

Brooke takes the glass of water, but never actually raises it up, “I feel like I cheated.”

Katya places a hand on her shoulder, “I know. It’s because you care.”

…

V _-I’m making chicken korma, so if you are not too tired you can stop by_

B _– You just want to prove that you can cook for yourself_

V_\- hahaah. Is that a no then?_

B_\- Of course not, when should I be there?_

…

Brooke still hasn’t decided what she’s going to do about her new found realization that she possibly wants to try being in a relationship with Vanessa, but she knows that she’s going to do something.

For now, she’s just enjoying her explaining what’s happening in the show that’s on so that Brooke can keep up, while they are eating chicken korma in her living room.

“Are you even listening?” Vanessa asks her, looking faux serious, but her eyes give her away.

She is, really, following the plot and everything. But she’s also focusing on her mouth, which is quite distracting.

“Mhm,” she nods while getting closer to capture her lips, Vanessa smiling into the kiss. As they deepen the kiss, Brooke presses her into the back of the couch. Vanessa loops her arms around Brooke’s neck, pulling on her bottom lip. She tries to let herself melt into it, especially because the kisses are so sweet and gentle, full of promise for a slow and lazy sex, but she knows she has to be honest first. So she breaks the kiss, lowering her head down, “I have to tell you something.”

She looks back up, Vanessa’s eyes full of worry but she’s keeping her expression relaxed, “What?”

“I kissed someone on Friday, but nothing else happened,” she feels her heart go into her throat, searching Vanessa’s face for a reaction but there is nothing. Brooke is aware that she could never follow Katya’s advice, she valued honesty too much to not tell Vanessa the full story, even though it could hurt their relationship.

Vanessa nods slowly, corner of her lips turning down, “I had a feeling it was something when you called me.”

She was not pulling away, her arms were still around Brooke, so she took it as a good sign for now. “I couldn’t go through with it,” she straightens out a strand of Vanessa’s hair mindlessly, “I..khm, prefer how things are now, didn’t want it change.” She feels the tips of her ears burn as she says it, especially when Vanessa’s eyebrows rise in surprise.

“Oh. Well, good.” Brooke notices the smirk that Vanessa is trying to supress.

They smile at each other for a moment and then Vanessa scratches the back of Brooke’s hair before pulling her in for a kiss, to continue where they left off.

…

Its Tuesday evening and Vanessa is staring at the papers, trying to come up with a solid plan on how to expand her bar into a pub so they can serve food. Thankfully Akeria can handle the crowd, so she doesn’t need to step in. Though, she almost gave up 3 times already, the nerves getting to her, because she keeps thinking if this doesn’t go well, it will take time to recover financially and she doesn’t want to put the bar at risk.

While calculating the cost for the kitchen, someone slides in to the booth next to her.

“Wow that’s a lot of paperwork,” she’s greeted by Brooke’s smiling face.

“Hi, what are you doing here?” she checks her watch, “doesn’t your shift start soon?”

Brooke nods, “Yeah, but Nina and I made muffins today so I thought I’d bring some,” she hands her a paper bag, “to help with planning.”

Vanessa expected everything but this, she takes the bag from Brooke, in it a container with chocolate muffins.

“But now that I see you, I feel like I should’ve brought more,” she frowns, “how’s it going?”

She’s still stunned when she puts the muffins in her lap, “Thank you,” she looks back at the papers, “honestly I’m stressed. And it’s going to take a lot of work, and cost a lot, and is a risk, and I-“ she starts to ramble when Brooke stops her by placing a hand over hers.

“Easy there. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. This is your bar and you’re doing a great job. If anyone knows what’s best for it, it’s you. So take your time, eat the muffins and you’ll work it out.”

Vanessa smiles, feeling some of the stress leave her body, “Thanks, Mami.”

Brooke smiles back, “Well, this is a short visit, I really need to get to the hospital, but I’ll talk to you later,” she leans in and pecks her lips, “Good luck.” And with a wink she’s gone.

…

Later that week, catching up with American Horror Story to distract herself was a good idea until she realized that she can’t even focus on the plot when her mind kept going to Brooke. They didn’t see each other nor text for two full days. Vanessa wouldn’t be concerned if she hadn’t texted her this morning but still haven’t gotten a response. Every time she looked at it, it said ‘delivered’, not even ‘read’. Maybe they don’t see each other every day, but there hasn’t been a day that they didn’t text each other.

She looked at the clock on her laptop, it was already 11pm. She should really go to sleep otherwise no amount of coffee is going to help her through the morning shift she’s doing because Shuga is going to a wedding this weekend.

Just as she was turning the lights off in the kitchen, her interphone buzzed. Weird, she thought.

“Hello?”

There was a beat of silence, “Hey, it’s Brooke,” her voice settled all of Vanessa’s nerves, “I know it’s late,” she cleared her throat, “but can I come up?”

“Yeah, yes, of course,” Vanessa buzzed the front door open. She waited to hear it open and close, then she went to the front door to wait for Brooke.

As soon as she heard the first knock, she opened the door. Her soft smile turned into a concerned frown when she took in the woman in front of her. Brooke was evidently coming from a shift, since she was carrying her work bag, her hair looks like she just carelessly took it out of her bun, but the most concerning is the tiredness that radiated from her and the glassy eyes from unshed tears. She never saw her like this.

“Hey,” Vanessa reaches out to her, Brooke taking her hand and walking in.

When the door closed behind them, Brooke let her bag fall down on the floor, her hand squeezing Vanessa’s.

“Hey,” she softly replied. Vanessa didn’t know how to ask or what to ask, because this is the first time Brooke showed up at her door unannounced and seemingly not to have sex.

“We don’t usually do this, but I can’t be alone tonight,” she paused, rubbing her cheek lightly.

Before she continued, Vanessa hugged her, “you don’t have to be,” she let her go but her free hand went around her lower back, “you want tea? Coffee?”

Brooke shook her head, “can we just go to bed? I’m tired and I know you’re working in the morning tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Vanessa still holding her hand as she led her to the bedroom.

Brooke just undressed down to her underwear, Vanessa following suit by removing the oversized tee she was wearing.

They both met under covers, in the middle of the bed, bodies almost touching. Only light in the room was Vanessa’s night lamp.

“Are you okay?” Vanessa removed a stray hair out of Brooke’s face. Brooke following the motion, not meeting her eyes.

“A kid, Leah, died during surgery today.” Her voice getting a slight rasp again.

Vanessa’s heart clenched, Brooke rarely speaks about the loses, hopefully because there aren’t many. But Vanessa knew about Leah, Brooke mentioned her sometimes, she’s been in the hospital frequently. It was something about her kidneys, Vanessa didn’t know the exact problem. Though, she remembers that she called Brooke; SuperBrooke “The superhero fan?”

Brooke nodded, “We finally got her a kidney, it was a simple surgery, but her little heart couldn’t take it.”

Vanessa covered her hand between them with hers, “I’m sorry”

“She’s third kid I lost in 48 hours. It’s a lot and I’m just so tired.” Brooke closed her eyes briefly, Vanessa thought that maybe she’ll cry, but no tears fell.

Vanessa cuddled closer to her, enveloping her in her arms. Brooke easily moving with her, settling in when her face was tucked between Vanessa’s neck and the pillow.

“I’m so sorry, Mami,” Vanessa just repeated herself. She was out of right things to say in this situation, so she settled on running her fingers through her hair.

Brooke pressed a light kiss on her neck and they fell asleep like that.

…

Brooke was woken up by the movement on the bed. She opened her eyes, Vanessa sitting on the edge of the bed, back turned to her. Today, her heart was lighter than yesterday. The passing of Leah still not leaving it, but it was getting there. This was a very stressful week for Brooke overall. She never lost that many kids in a row, her mortality rate as a surgeon extremely low. Mostly because she’s a perfectionist and the aspect that those are little kids driving her to be very good at her job.

Her whole shift was moved to accommodate Leah’s surgery, so she was at least thankful that it was at the end. Only because she shut down completely when the monitor just kept beeping, announcing that her heart is no longer beating.

She left the OR, quickly changed and somehow ended up at Vanessa’s door. Vanessa, since they met, made her happier after a long or particularly hard day. So, she guesses, it’s not that much of a surprise she went to her.

“What time is it?” Vanessa almost jumped from the bed at the question.

She turned around, hand on her chest, “Jesus Mami,”

Brooke muttered, smiling, “Sorry.”

“It’s 5.30,” she turned the clock towards Brooke who nodded in response, “you can go back to sleep, spare keys are by the door, but I have to rush, kinda overslept my alarm.”

Brooke just kept looking at her, she couldn’t decide if she was prettier in the morning or at night. Something about her quiet morning voice and bed hair made Brooke just turn into soft goo.

“When’s your break today? At 10 or?” Brooke asked.

Vanessa picked out clothes from her dresser, “Yeah, at 10ish, why?”

“So that I know when to come by to leave the keys and we can hang a bit,” she smiled shortly, “and I wasn’t ignoring you by the way, I’ve just been all over the place. Saw your text last night.” She looked apologetic.

When she put the sweater on, she walked over to the Brooke’s side of the bed, “S’all good, Mami,” she leaned down, hand on Brooks waist, and pecked her lips, “glad you came yesterday, I was worried.”

Brooke rubbed her forearm and tugged her for another press of their lips, “so am I,” almost not audible but Vanessa heard her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Tell me what you think :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii lovelies! Thank you for reading along and leaving such nice comments, you honestly make my day <3 
> 
> Here's chapter 5, finally! It took me longer to write this one, had some writer's block :/   
Proof-read it once, so, again, sorry for any mistakes hahaha. And I hope you like it!
> 
> Ps, now I'm on tumblr again ( @blhates) , turns out there's no way to ever truly leave that place lol.

Vanessa has just finished her meetings with several contractors and now had three to choose from by the end of the week. It’s been a productive morning and she decides to reward herself with thai food after she picks up the samples for the kitchen tiles.

As she enters the thai food restaurant, Vanessa remembers, when they texted earlier, that Brooke complained about forgetting her lunch at home because she dislikes eating the cafeteria food. So she decides she should get Brooke something as well and maybe eat lunch with her.

V- _when is your lunch break?_

She checks out what they have that she could get for Brooke, tiredness that she felt, slowly leaving her body.

B- _in half an hour, why?_

V- _want company?_

B- _if its yours, always_

…

Vanessa ends up getting fried rice for herself and pad thai for Brooke since it’s the safest option being that she remembers her mention eating it. Though Brooke doesn’t seem like such a picky eater, at least not from the food she heard her make.

She checks her watch; turns out, she’s a bit early, so she makes her way to the paediatric wing in hopes of finding Brooke instead of just standing at the entrance for 10 minutes.

Luckily she spots her in the main hallway talking to, what Vanessa assumes, a mom and a daughter. She doesn’t get any closer to avoid interrupting the conversation.

Brooke is crouching in front of the girl, mostly addressing her, with a soft smile on her face. After a couple of seconds, she gives the kid a high five and rises to her full height, the whole scene almost making Vanessa melt into a puddle on the floor.

She then notices Vanessa, surprise on her face quickly replaced with a smile. Brooke turns to the mum again and tells her something, then squeezes the girls shoulder before coming over to Vanessa.

“You’re early,” she says as she approaches her.

Vanessa pushes off of the wall, “yeah,” she catches herself wanting to lean in and kiss her hello, but roots herself in place on time. It seems that Brooke sways a tiny bit forward then back, possibly on the same page which makes her lips quirk in a small smile.

“I still don’t know what to get, I’m more annoyed than usual for forgetting cause it was such a good meal,” she sighs looking up, in almost a childish distress.

At that, Vanessa raises the bag in front of her, “Your troubles are over, I got pad thai here with your name on it.”

Brooke’s eyes light up when she looks at the bag then at Vanessa, “You brought me lunch?”

“Of course I did, if we are eating together then both of us are gonna enjoy the food, I’m not watching you suffer through the shitty cafeteria food,” she says then puts on a sweet smile, “and maybe this is also a bribe so you help me choose kitchen tiles.”

Brooke snorts, then steps closer to Vanessa, taking her free hand, and lightly kisses her cheek. She grins, squeezing her hand and whispers “You’re sweet.”

It makes Vanessa’s heart jump and focus on holding Brooke’s hand because she once again feels like she might melt to the floor. Something about her always makes her feel like chest is turning into cotton candy, and like there are flowers blooming everywhere and her skin is warm just like it is when she’s exposed to sun during spring time. Nothing ever made her feel like this and she hopes it never stops.

When they make it to the Brooke’s office, she presses Vanessa against the door and capturing her lips this time. She has to clutch the bag with food because she almost lets it drop when her arms automatically go around Brooke’s neck. She kisses her with intent, Vanessa barely catching up to her, body going pliant when Brooke hand grips her ass and pulls Vanessa against her. Though that’s as far as it goes, Brooke gradually softening the kisses till it’s just light pecks. Before she lets her go, she presses a small kiss beneath Vanessa’s jawline that always makes shiver.

“Way to get me riled up,” Vanessa chuckles, still leaning against the door, not trusting her legs to function, “and then stop.”

Brooke sits behind her desk, laughing. “I keep everything PG at work, as a rule.”

Vanessa follows her, bypassing the chair across from Brooke and going to her side, jumping up to sit on the empty spot on the table. “That wasn’t PG at all,” she crosses her legs, enjoying how Brooke’s eyes are following the lines of them.

Brooke smirks, “oops?”

Vanessa shakes her head, smiling and hands her the container with the pad thai which she happily takes.

She then pushes her chair closer to the table, opening her container. Vanessa has already dived into her fried rice, pleased that it’s still warm.

“Okay, let’s see those tiles,” Brooke says after a bite, turning to Vanessa whose brain stops functioning for a moment when she moves her free hand up on Vanessa’s thigh. She doesn’t grip it, just rests it there, and waits for Vanessa to show her the samples.

…

On Monday, though, Brooke felt like karma was biting her in the ass.

Nina wanted to wait for Monet to finish with work, so she asked Brooke to keep her company for about an hour at the bar. It seemed like a great idea because she’s going to see Vanessa, who is working a day shift. Her schedule is very jumpy these days all due to the expansion, and Brooke is enjoying the extra time they get to see each other. She never thought that the alignment of someone’s schedule to hers would bring her actual happiness.

From the moment they stepped foot in the bar, Brooke’s mood went south. She expected to see Vanessa, maybe even get a small smile that always appears when she sees Brooke, but no. Vanessa is turned away from the door, leaning on the bar and speaking to a very pretty woman that’s sitting in Brooke’s usual spot. Next to that woman is Silky, clearly included in the conversation.

“Oh Vanessa is working,” Nina points out as she takes a seat at one of the free tables. Worst choice of seating, in Brooke’s opinion, because now she has front row seats to whatever’s happening there.

“Yeah,” Brooke takes a seat as well.

Nina frowns at her, “Aren’t you gonna say hi to her?”

“Mhm,” she’s distracted by the scene, Vanessa throwing her head in laughter at something the woman said. They seem like good friends, but she’s not aware of this person, Vanessa never mentioning her and it makes tension build in her stomach

“Brooke?” Nina addresses her again, making her look at Nina. “I’m going, yes” she nods, “do you want tea or coffee?”

“Coffee, lots of cream though,” and with that Brooke leaves. She almost goes to Ariel to order just because Vanessa is clearly not actually working, but the curiosity gets the best of her.

She relaxes her face, adjusts her sweater and greets Vanessa, “Hey.” It makes the grin that was on Vanessa’s face turn into surprise when she looks at Brooke.

“Oh hi, what brings you here?” she pushes up from her elbows on the bar to her full height, stepping closer to Brooke.

Brooke feels eyes on her, almost hundred percent sure if she looked at the woman she’d catch her checking her out.

“Keeping Nina company while she waits for Monet,” Brooke says, focusing on Vanessa and not on the audience they have.

Vanessa looks behind her and waves at Nina, who waves back, “Oh, then, what can I get you?”

“Coffee, lots of cream and green tea for me,” she smiles even though the whole energy is so off.

She smiles back, taking two cups when the woman speaks up, “while you do that, give me your phone so I can put the number in.”

Brooke’s head snaps to her in shock and then Vanessa says, “oh yeah, here you go,” giving her the phone from her pocket. That makes Brooke instantly feel like she’s been drenched in cold water, her heartbeat picking up. She almost asks _why _but knowing it’s technically not her place, stops her.

Silky then speaks up, “you know what I’ve just realized, both of your exes turned into celebrities. Vanjie, your coochie has some kind of star magic,” making Brooke’s and Vanessa’s jaw drop and the woman laugh.

“Oh my God, Silky!” Vanessa covers her eyes and Brooke stays quiet, trying to fully process what she said.

Silky then holds up her hands, palm up, “What? It’s true, Adore here became a national star, singing her little ass off and Aquaria is a big shot model.”

“I can’t with you,” Vanessa responds to her, shaking her head, and places the coffee and tea in front of Brooke, looking nervous suddenly. She wanted to say something, but she was still stuck on the fact that this was apparently Vanessa’s ex which she’s also in good relations with _and _that Aquaria, who Vanessa doesn’t talk about, is a model.

That action makes Silky look at Brooke and continue talking, “and now you’re cosy with-“, but is immediately cut off by Vanessa, “I think you should eat your peanuts and stop with my star coochie.” Even though, Brooke really wanted to know where that sentence was going.

She takes out cash to pay, but Vanessa stops her, “No no, it’s on the house.”

Brooke nods and says “Thank you,” then takes the cups but feels reluctant to leave. She doesn’t like the aspect of whatever is going on here. _Why does she need her number all of a sudden?, _she thinks, annoyed.

They smile at each other shortly and Brookes goes back to the table.

She hands her the coffee and Nina starts talking about something that happened at work, but Brooke honestly did not pay attention, only thing she was focusing on was the bar. She couldn’t stop watching, hoping she’ll see something that will release the tension that’s building in her body.

Vanessa is back to leaning on the bar, talking to Adore and Silky, looking happy and relaxed. She couldn’t phantom being that friendly with your ex-girlfriend, so her mind kept going to the possibility of her having feelings for her ex, even though she rationally knew that it could be a number of different reasons. Maybe just enough time passed. Maybe they weren’t together for a long time. _I’m sticking with that_, she thinks.

“I’m so happy I brought you here to keep me company,” Nina says sarcastically, “you are so talkative and responsive.”

She moves her gaze from the bar and back to Nina, “sorry,” she says, not even trying to explain herself.

Nina brings her coffee to her lips, looking at what Brooke was focused on, “who’s that girl with Vanessa?”

“Her ex-girlfriend apparently,” Brooke says, crossing her arms.

Nina’s eyebrow rises, “Oh, and that’s bothering you?” her voice gets higher and she is clearly amused by all of it.

“No, it’s just interesting,” she shrugs trying to reign in the actual stress this is causing her.

It all would’ve been fine if Adore didn’t touch Vanessa’s hair in the moment Brooke raised her cup of tea, making her hand shake and spilling third of it on the table.

Nina watched all of it happen and snorted, “Yeah, sure.”

She had to sit through watching their interaction for about 15 minutes more, fully aware that all of the things she’s feeling are irrational, but there was no stopping it. Thankfully Adore and Silky leave the bar, of course not without a hug, which Brooke deems has lasted too long in her own _objective_ opinion.

For a second, she contemplates making Nina go sit at the bar with her, but the thought is quickly thrown away because Monet comes in. They decide that it’s better to leave right away, both of them starting to get hungry, so Brooke just goes to say goodbye to Vanessa and confirm their plans for tomorrow.

“We’re leaving,” she catches Vanessa’s attention. “Already?” her bottom lip pushes out, almost pouting. Brooke softens, “yeah, and I should tell you that I spilt some tea on the table, sorry,” she bites her lip. Vanessa waves her hand, “don’t worry about it. Though didn’t expect two surgeons to be clumsy,” she smirks.

“Hah, don’t know what came over me,” she steps closer to the bar, “are we still on for tomorrow?”

Vanessa grins, leaning on both hands on the lower part of the bar “Yes, after a day of planning a menu, open yoga class will be perfect.”

“Great, looking forward to it,” Brooke nods, smiling back, “See you then.”

…

Vanessa’s day was very tiring, but it is worth it because she finally decided on the menu and she hopes that yoga class with Brooke will release some of the tension she feels in her shoulders and maybe lessen her headache.

She’s glad Brooke suggested this the other day, because otherwise she’d probably force herself into doing more things before work which is a recipe for a grumpy Vanessa and high anxiety that’s going to make her feel on edge.

There is a small tap on her shoulder and when she turns around she’s met with Brooke’s smiling face.

“You’re really working those yoga pants, Mami,” Vanessa checks her out, Brooke’s legs looking so long and good enough to bite.

Brooke chuckles, “I could say the same to you,” one hand reaching forward, her fingers lightly grazing Vanessa’s butt cheek.

Her jaw drops, “scandalous,” feeling a small blush coming, “contain yourself, we have a class to get to,” she teases making Brooke giggle.

They go inside, immediately feeling grateful that it’s not fully packed and that there is room in the back for both of them.

They put their mats down and just as they sit down, Vanessa’s phone dings. She checks it, it’s Adore. She’s been texting her, helping her with the move.

Brooke looks at her and Vanessa says, “Sorry, got to send Adore the number for the moving company.”

“Oh she’s moving away?” she swears she hears excitements in Brooke’s voice.

Vanessa hits send and puts her phone away, “actually she’s moving back to LA.”

It makes Brooke look away and focus on her legs in front of her, “Oh.”

“Yeah, and she only stayed in touch with me and Silky after going to Las Vegas, so we’re helping her, cause she hasn’t been in LA for eight years, she’s practically clueless,” Vanessa says as they start the class with breathing exercises.

Brooke nods, doesn’t say anything until they finish the exercise. “I’m surprised you’re still good. Isn’t there like thing that you can’t be friends with your exes or something?” her voice sounds unsure, she’s still looking straight ahead.

They start to do a seated spinal twist, “I don’t even think of her as an ex if I’m honest, we were high school sweethearts, but we were always more friends than actual girlfriends. We always joked that we dated out of convenience, since we were the only queer people we knew,” Vanessa chuckles, “when she went to pursue her singing career, we decided to go our separate ways. I was sad, but mostly cause my friend was leaving not the breaking up part.”

Brooke deflated, biting her lip, “now that you’re not the only queer people you know, are you thinking about dating again?”

Vanessa stopped in her tracks, “What?” a nervous laughter bubbled out of her chest, she couldn’t believe Brooke was asking her that.

They moved into a downward facing dog, Vanessa tried to look at her, but Brooke just kept looking at the mat, doing the pose, “I don’t know, I’m just asking, you seem very friendly.”

If Vanessa didn’t know any better, she’d say that Brooke is feeling insecure.

“Yes, _friendly_. And I think her boyfriend would have a problem with her dating me.” Vanessa states, looking at her again.

Brooke’s eyes widen, “Oh,” laughs slightly, “well then good for her,” she nods.

When they start doing the warrior pose, Vanessa sees that her face is more relaxed but she’s still avoiding eye contact. She hopes that Brooke wanted to say ‘good _for me_’.

Vanessa takes a deep breath, deciding she should put herself out there even though it could be a risky move with Brooke, “Besides, I like where things are going now,” it makes Brooke look at her, minor shock showing in her eyes, so she adds, “in my life and everything.”

Brooke and her share a small smile and for the rest of the yoga class they go back to easy exchanges, energy between them softer by the minute, just how it Vanessa likes it.

…

After the yoga class, Vanessa invited Brooke for lunch at her place, not ready to leave her just yet. Yoga did help her relax and she forgot about work for a moment, so she hoped to keep it that way till she has to go to work.

Vanessa wanted to order something meaty or maybe pancakes (stress makes her a sweet-tooth), but Brooke insisted on getting chicken salads and lemonade from the healthy-looking restaurant near the studio. 

She even tried suggesting that they go to the organic market that’s on the way because she knows a ‘good lady’ is there today from whom she buys fruit, then she not subtly suggested that Vanessa needs to boost her immune system when she pestered her enough to get the real reason why Brooke wanted to make a stop there.

If it was any other day, she would happily go, but today, she wanted to shower and eat the salad in peace with Brooke, before she had to work.

They enter the apartment, placing both of their bags on the floor, Vanessa still holding the bag with their food.

“Shower first?” she looks back at Brooke, walking toward the living room.

“Sure,” Brooke agrees, waits for Vanessa to place the bag on the table then places her hands on her waist, “we already know there’s room for two,” she whispers against Vanessa’s hair.

Vanessa turns around and with a grin, pushes Brooke while walking in the direction of the bathroom. They remove their clothes on their way there and practically jump in the shower.

Before she even takes the shower gel, Brooke pulls her against her, back to front and starts peppering her neck with kisses. Her fingers scratch Vanessa’s stomach, just under her belly button, making her push back against her. She’s about to move her hand, that’s been holding Brooke’s, in her hair, when Brooke twists her around and captures her lips. One of her hands encircles her waist while the other moves between her shoulder blades, palm spreading out and then squeezing her closer, making Vanessa feel putty. When Brooke starts to move again, Vanessa holds on to the back of her head, neither of them breaking the kiss. Brooke presses her against the wall, spreading Vanessa’s legs to step in with her own.

They slowly start moving against each other, making the kisses less coordinated and broken by soft gasps. As they build a steady rhythm, Brooke turns her attention on Vanessa’s neck and when she feels her bite carefully, she is sure she’ll have a hickey by the end of this. Then her lips start leaving her neck, moving down, until they latch on to her nipple. Just before Vanessa pulls on her hair to have her let up, Brooke slides her hands over the curve of her body, going back to kissing her. Vanessa already feels spaced out, everything feeling like it’s in slow motion and at this point she’d let Brooke do anything to her. She moans and bites Brooke’s bottom lip when she feels her finger make a teasing swipe over her clit then circle around the edge. Brooke kisses her jaw when she sinks in the finger, Vanessa moaning softly. It doesn’t take long for Vanessa to swerve her hips against her hand. She gasps when Brooke adds another finger, opening them just a little as she pumps them in. That, with Brooke’s lips sucking on her favourite spot on her neck, sends Vanessa over the edge.

After a moment of Brooke caressing her everywhere and pecking her barely responsive lips, Vanessa opens her eyes and swiftly turns them so they switch places. Brooke lets out a squeal when Vanessa gets down on her knees and places one of Brooke’s legs over her shoulder. Vanessa smiles at her before kissing up the length of her thigh until she reaches her cunt. She places a soft kiss there, before eating her out like a starved person. Vanessa is pretty sure she never made Brooke come that fast and she’s hundred percent sure there are finger shaped bruises on Brooke’s thigh from gripping it to stop them from shaking so much.

The actual shower lasts ten minutes; it could’ve been shorter if they hadn’t kept exchanging kisses.

They dry off, dress again, take their salads with lemonade and make their way to the couch. As they sit next to each other, Vanessa throws one leg over Brooke’s, who readjusts it a bit, then moves her hand up and down her thigh before continuing eating.

“Have you looked at the applicants yet?” Brooke asks her

Vanessa scratches her brow, “No, I’m either going to look at it today or tomorrow. I have to decide on a contractor by Saturday and also meet with the advisor,” she takes a breath, “honestly this whole process is so annoying. I’m in a constant state of worry.”

Brooke puts her fork in the bowl so she can squeeze her knee, “I can see, but it seems like it’s going well. I know it’s futile to say that you shouldn’t stress and everything will be fine, since neither do I believe it before I see it. But consider it said, because I do believe it.”

“Thank you,” Vanessa smiles, raising a full fork then drops it, “Is this Sunday the one when you’re free?”

“Yes,” Brooke covers her mouth as she chews.

Vanessa positively beams, “Then I think you should join me in my ‘what even is work?’ bubble. It’s limited edition, one day only.”

Brooke laughs, “Ohh, what does that bubble include?”

“Me making aubergine curry with lamb and brownies or pancakes, since you refused to get them today,” Vanessa huffs, then continues, “possibly there’s going to be wine involved. Then eating all of it in my underwear while something trashy is on TV.”

Brooke nods her head, “Very tempting,” pretends to be in deep thought, then holds up two fingers, “Under two conditions,” she waits for Vanessa to agree, “one, I make the pancakes, to make up, of course. And two, no underwear,” she smirks.

Vanessa bites her lip, moving her head toward Brooke, “Deal.” She pecks her lips.

…

It’s Saturday and Vanessa has been feeling really weak for two days now, but she explained it away with not being to sleep well because she was trying to sort out the last of plans with the expansion. She found the contractors that will sort out the kitchen, they’ll start working in 3 days. Finally, after making final decisions, her financial advisor provided her with records of the money spent and the space left to hire more people. Even though it would be cutting it close, she can hire an extra bartender to relieve herself from working throughout the whole week.

The excitement she received from her regulars about serving food finally, made the stress of doing it shrink a bit and her aunt was so happy she decided to take that step, which made the biggest concern she had go away.

Now, she takes an ibuprofen, again, for the headache she’s been having the whole day, hoping it will pass by the time she has to get to work.

One thing that cheers her up is a picture Brooke sent her while she was showering. It’s her in the dance studio, doing a split while she’s resting on her elbows, looking all sweaty but cute nonetheless. She’s happy that Brooke finally has some time for the studio, now that she’s doing morning shifts.

Vanessa sends her a picture back, mirror pic of her right out of the shower, in a small towel that barely covers anything.

B- _Mean_.

V- _why? __J_

B- _you can’t tease me like this when I can’t do anything about it_

V- _you started it :P_

B- _J__ I can do it again tomorrow _

V- _good, then I’m not going to be the only one stretching_

B- _if you don’t stop I’m coming over now_

V- _great, my plan has worked_

Vanessa is genuinely looking forward to having two days off, one of which she plans spending closed in her apartment with Brooke. She was surprised when Brooke told her she’s has Sundays off this month, didn’t dare asking why, but was hoping her assumption was correct.

B- _do you still have a headache?_

Vanessa smiles at the message, Brooke has been checking up on her, or more on her health in the last few days. She found it amusing how she could see that Brooke wanted to ask more questions or say more but restrained herself. Brooke made her go into a giggle fit when she offered to make her a smoothie that was very clearly heavy with vitamins when Vanessa told her yesterday that she’s been feeling drowsy. She said that she was making one for herself anyways, but Vanessa doubts that was true.

V- _I do, but I’ll be fine. I just need to finally get some rest._

There was a lot of typing and deleting, but eventually Brooke sends - _okay, good luck at work, drink lots of water_

Vanessa prepares herself a quick dinner, almost forcefully eats it because she doesn’t feel like eating any food, but she has to survive an eight-hour shift somehow.

Ignoring the headache and the weakness turns impossible when she comes to work and the first thing Akeria says is: “Are you sick?”

“No? I’m just really tired.” Vanessa puts her little apron on.

Akeria studies her a bit, “One shade paler and you’d change races.”

Vanessa rolls her eyes, “you know it was a stressful week. I just need to finally get some sleep. I’ll be fine.”

Not even Akeria seems to believe that, but she lets it go, so Vanessa gets to work immediately mentally steeling herself for the weekend crowd.

As each hour passes, Vanessa feels worse. Her head is practically throbbing and it starts to physically hurt to even lift a glass. She even takes a paracetamol and constantly drinks tea but it doesn’t help.

Worst is, time just seems to pass even slower. Crowd is not getting any smaller and the noise is kind of making her sick. But she is stubborn and keeps pushing through it.

So when it’s near closing she almost cries in relief, because her eyes burn and she’s starting to admit to herself that she may be coming down with a flu.

“Okay, you need to let all of this go,” Akeria takes the glass from her hands, “and go home. I don’t know why I didn’t boot your ass halfway through. I’ll clean and close the bar, you need to take care of yourself.”

Vanessa looks around, bar is pretty messy and it’s definitely a two-person job but if she stands for a minute longer she might pass out.

“I’m starting to think working was a bad idea,” she admits.

Akeria scoffs, “Oh really? Swear to God, you’re your own worst enemy. Go, and text me when you’re home.” She moves her in the direction of the exit.

Vanessa walks out of the bar and feels colder than ever, she thinks she’s speed walking to her apartment but can’t be sure because everything feels blurry and slowed down.

When she finally comes home and gets into comfier clothes her stomach betrays her as well. She barely makes it to the bathroom to throw up the little snack she had during work. She picks herself up after a bit, everything officially aching, and walks over to her bedroom. Before lying down she takes the thermometer to check her temperature.

It shouldn’t surprise her that it’s high, already at 38.7C. She takes another flu medicine and tries to fall asleep.

After a while of tossing around, her head so heavy, she still couldn’t fall asleep. Every bone in her body hurt and she beginning to curse herself for not taking preventative measures.

Because she felt like she’s going to get delirious, she decided to call Akeria to come over, mostly out of slight fear – she was never alone through sickness, plus, she’s very rarely sick.

Clock shows its 4:10, she hopes Akeria didn’t already finish and was on her way home.

“Vanessa? What happened?” Akeria answers the phone after the first ring

“Hey Kiks, can you please come over? I seriously don’t feel well and I don’t want to be alone.” Vanessa covers her eyes, feeling tears filing them up.

She hears door closing, “Of course honey, I just locked up, be there in ten.”

Vanessa feels bad for making her come over, but Akeria and Silky are the only ones who have the spare key to her apartment and she is absolutely sure she can’t get up anymore. Last flu she had, so long ago, wasn’t this bad. Or maybe her brain erased that from her memory, because she feels like her body is checking out.

True to her word, Akeria enters the apartment after ten minutes.

“Vanj, where are you?” she calls out, Vanessa can hear her drop her bag on the table in the hallway.

“Bedroom,” she croaks out.

Akeria is pushes the door open, immediately going over to her bed. She presses her wrist against Vanessa’s forehead, face immediately concerned.

“Ohh you’re burning up already, tsk, if you didn’t look so bad I’d hit you,” she shakes her head in disproval, but softly caresses Vanessa’s arm.

Vanessa’s lips turn down, “I’m sorry.” She can barely think, this escalated so much and she did not expect it to feel like this.

“You’re apologizing to me? Should I call the priest?” Akeria says, making Vanessa laugh which causes her pain making the laugh end on a high whiny note, “Ohh no, don’t laugh. Imma make you tea and see what good you got to eat.”

Akeria leaves the room and Vanessa tries to maybe fall asleep, but she still can’t. Her stomach hurts from vomiting and probably because she’s hungry again. She makes a mental note to never do this to herself again. It occurred to her halfway through the night that she might be getting a fever and she still didn’t stop.

She comes back after some time, Vanessa can’t tell anymore, with a tray full of things. Akeria takes a damp washcloth and places it over her forehead, making her wince instantly.

“Easy,” she says after she places the tray on the bedside table and moves Vanessa to make space for her on the bed. She immediately cuddles into her, Akeria shifting her so she’s leaning against her side. She holds the washcloth so it doesn’t fall off and removes the extra layer of blankets from them.

“I have ginger tea, can you drink that for me,” she says, but Vanessa doesn’t open her eyes, only a high but quiet sound coming from her.

Akeria takes the tea and helps it to her lips, Vanessa reluctantly taking it.

…

Brooke’s morning has been going fairly well, she woke up before her alarm and had extra time for morning cuddles with the cats, she showered and since Nina was working mornings, they could get coffee together.

“So, Monet is probably going to sleep over today, we’re having a movie night, but you’re, of course, welcome to join us for dinner.” Nina says as they walk toward the hospital from the bar.

Brooke takes a sip, “I won’t be there actually, so you’ll have the whole place for yourself.”

“Ohh, are you going to Vanessa’s?” Nina wiggles her eyebrows, “are you having date night as well?”

“No,” Brooke shakes her head, amused, “and it’s better if I don’t tell you” She smirks.

Nina opens the door for them, “Should’ve guessed it’s something like that.”

Just as Brooke is about to speak up, her phone rings making both of them stop. She pulls out her phone, surprisingly, it’s Vanessa. Immediately, her gut tells her something is wrong, because Vanessa should be, and always is, sound asleep at 7am. Even Nina frowns when she peeks at her phone.

“Hello,” she picks up.

“Hey Brooke it’s Akeria, I’m sorry if I woke you up,” a rushed voice comes through, Brooke’s stomach dropping to her feet. She interrupts Akeria, “no I’m at work, what’s going on?” her brain is already at the worst case scenario and she focuses on Nina’s face who looks at her confused.

“So like Vanessa has not been feeling well, especially yesterday, and she started running a fever last night but like it spiked again so now it’s at almost 40, which is bad right? I’m, maybe, just overreacting but I’m worried and she’s barely conscious, I don’t know what to do, so I thought maybe you can tell me?” Akeria explains, clearly nervous.

Brooke knew this would happen, she saw the signs but she didn’t want to overstep or tell her what to do, not knowing if it was her place. She looks at Nina, looking for an answer because all her brain is telling her is to turn around and go to Vanessa’s.

“Tell her to bring her in, that’s a too high fever,” Nina whispers, “just to be sure,” she adds with a nod.

Brooke clears her throat, “Can you bring her to the hospital? So I can examine her.”

“I knew it was bad, oh god,” she hears Akeria moving around. “Don’t panic, it’s probably just the flu, but I want to be sure,” her work voice coming through.

She hears her take a deep breath, “okay, okay, I’ll bring her now”

“I’ll wait for you down at the main entrance,” Brooke nods to herself and hangs up.

Brooke figures that it will take them about 20 minutes at least to get to the hospital so she takes that time to delegate everything she can to her residents. She has no scheduled surgeries for today and sends a quick prayer that no emergencies pop up.

She rushes back down to the main entrance, scanning the room until her eyes settle on Akeria who’s sitting on one of the chairs with Vanessa leaning on her.

Brooke approaches them, her focus completely on Vanessa, her eyes are closed and there’s a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

“Hey, nurse told me to fill out this form, and it’s gonna take me a while can you just check her here?” Akeria starts talking as soon as she sees her, eyes worried and alert but the bags under them show that she hasn’t gotten any sleep.

“Don’t worry,” she crouches down in front of Vanessa who slightly frowns when she speaks but doesn’t open her eyes. Brooke places one hand on her leg and the other against her forehead, she instantly feels that Vanessa is burning up.

“Tell me everything and then I’ll take her to a room while you fill out the form,” Brooke addresses Akeria, hands still on Vanessa.

Akeria sets the pen down, “I knew she was getting sick but her stubborn ass just insisted on working. Anyways, she said that she felt a fever coming during the shift and it really started to escalate towards the end. Apparently she threw up when she came home and since I’ve been with her, I’ve managed to get her to drink ginger tea and eat like two crackers. She didn’t sleep really, mostly like been in and out. But I noticed that it was getting worse cause she was letting out these wounded sounds and when I checked her temperature again it was at 39.8, so I panicked and called you.”

Brooke nods, her mind trying to work against all the worry she’s feeling in her chest.

“Okay, I’ll get a wheelchair to move her to a room. Don’t worry and I’ll come get you when I settle her in.”

She calls one of the nurses to come help her, she tells them she’ll admit her in and that they don’t have to call the other doctor. Nobody questions her which is great, because she can’t deal with unnecessary obstacles now.

“Brooke?” she hears against her neck as she moves Vanessa from Akeria to the wheelchair.

She holds her head, “Yes, I’m taking you to a room, okay? You’ll be fine.” Vanessa only opens her eyes a little, then says “Okay” and places her own hand against Brooke’s on her cheek.

A nurse that usually works with Brooke is the one that pushes the wheelchair while she holds Vanessa’s hand.

They find the available room and go in, Brooke completely aware that if this was a random person she would stay on the ER beds, but there is no way Brooke is letting anyone near her other than her and she wants her to be as comfortable as possible.

She lifts her up from the wheelchair and places her on the bed, then turns to the nurse, “When the woman that came with her fills out everything, could you please direct her to this room?”

“Yes, no problem doctor Hytes,” nurse smiles at her and leaves.

Brooke then removes Vanessa’s shoes and jacket, then shiftes her so she’s under the sheet.

“I’m sorry, Mami,” she mumbles when she settles. Brooke turning back to her, “For what?”

Vanessa’s eyes open again, “for involving you into this, Akeria is probably overreacting,” her voice is quieter than usual and raspier.

Brooke leans forward, hand going to her cheek, “Don’t worry about that, baby,” she pauses, lowering her voice, “I’m glad you’re here, so I can keep an eye on you.”

Vanessa’s lips quirk up, eyes closing again.

She gets the nurses cart to her bed and prepares to put in the cannula so she can take her blood and get her an IV bag.

Just as she’s doing it, Akeria enters the room, “how is she doing?”

“I’m getting a blood sample and I’ll start her on an IV bag since you’ve said that she thrown up and hasn’t eaten anything. I’ll be here with her and give her medicine for fever and flu through the IV. Hopefully she’ll be able to properly sleep when the pain meds kick in.” Brooke explains to her. 

“Okay, do you think it could be something else? Cause she developed a fever in a day, that ain’t normal.” Akeria goes to her side, taking Vanessa’s free hand.

Brooke sets the blood sample down and takes the IV bag, “I don’t know for sure, but based on what I’ve seen in the past few days and the stress she’s been under, I’m guessing that’s the reason for this. But until we get the blood results I can’t tell you anything definitive.” Brooke connects the IV, and moves to Akeria’s side, “I’ll get this to the nurse to take it to the lab and I need to get the medicine. You can stay with her if you want, but if you’d like to go home and get some sleep you can. I promise I’ll be with her.”

Akeria thinks about it, then nods, “I’ll wait until you get back.”

…

After a long while, Vanessa starts to wake up. She doesn’t know how long has she been out but she’s happy she finally fell asleep. Her head wasn’t throbbing anymore, only a dull ache present and she can finally open her eyes without them burning.

A smile immediately takes over her face when she sees Brooke sitting next to her with papers in her lap.

“Hey,” she tries to speak, but her throat is too dry. Brooke looks up, moving the papers, “Hey,” she hands over the cup of water to Vanessa.

“How are you feeling?” Brooke checks her forehead again; it’s still burning but not as it was this morning.

“Better, thank you,” Vanessa takes her hand and squeezes it.

Brooke takes the thermometer and puts it in her mouth, “I knew this would happen, I’m just glad it’s not worse. You need to slow down, baby.” She squeezes her hand back.

Vanessa replies when Brooke takes the thermometer, “I know,” she looks down, sad, “I’m mostly sorry I ruined our plans now. I was looking forward to having you to myself for the day.”

“First of all, your fever is down to less concerning levels, so that’s good. Secondly, you still get me to yourself for the day,” Brooke smiles to which Vanessa pouts, “but I’m sick.”

“So? I’m taking you back to your apartment after my shift is over and making you soup. I’m a surgeon, baby, a little fever is not scaring me away. Plus, I make a mean chicken soup,” she winks, moving her thumb over her hand in a soothing motion. Also, the ‘baby’ that keeps leaving her lips warms Vanessa’s heart every time.

“Guess this is as good time as any to make you watch all the classics you’ve apparently never seen,” Vanessa smiles and flutters her eyelashes making Brooke chuckle and say, “see? It works out.”

…

Nina is locked in place, observing the scene in front of her- Brooke is in the room with Vanessa sitting by her bed, holding her hand. It seems like Vanessa is awake now, because she can see Brooke talk to her. It feels private and like she should look away, but she also knows this is only time she’ll get to witness this.

“What are you looking at?” Katya slides beside her, leaning against the counter. Nina moves her head in the direction of the room, Katya following her line of sight, examining the room.

“Is that Vanessa?” Katya moves forward, “what happened?” she starts to go toward the room but Nina pulls her back.

“Mhm, but wait,” Nina smiles, “just look.” Katya throws her a confused look but leans back again and observes.

Brooke gets up for a moment, moving papers that were by Vanessa’s feet (Nina assumes it’s work she has for today) and then checks her IV. She stands next to her head for a second before she adjusts her pillow. When she caresses Vanessa’s cheek with the back of her hand, Nina’s breath hitches and Katya gasps, grabbing her hand.

“Oh my god,” Katya whispers to which Nina adds, “I know.”

Brooke then sits back down next to Vanessa, leaning on the bed this time and laughing at something she said. Nina never saw her that soft, it was so refreshing and beautiful.

“Vanessa’s is the girl in the phone!” Katya turns to Nina, mouth completely open, excitement clear on her face.

Nina frowns, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she turns back to them, clutching Katya’s arm to her abdomen, “but I think our Brooke is falling in love.”

Katya squeezes her hand, “yes she is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Tell me what you think :D


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii loves!  
Happy holidays!!  
I've gone off my plan to do a bit more Christmassy chapter so I hope you'll like it :D  
Also, I don't know if I should finish with the next chapter or if I should just go on till they are both little old ladies hahaha, we'll see. 
> 
> Happy reading, love you all <3

It is already Thursday and Vanessa can’t believe how fast her week has passed. She started to feel better by Tuesday, worst of it passing, but she took Wednesday off as well, just be sure, and because she received a very strict phone call from Brooke to not even think about working.

That Sunday passed so fast and even though she felt horrible, she wishes it lasted longer. Brooke attitude was somewhere in between protective mother hen and full-on-doctor, which Vanessa loved seeing, especially because she didn’t expect that kind of attention. Though, she still has flashes of, honestly yucky, images she saw every time she’d wake up, cuddled into Brooke on her bed who was watching some surgery videos while she slept. But then Brooke would start carding her fingers through her hair and she’d fall back asleep in no time.

“Where did you go?” Kameron pulls her out of her thoughts.

She shakes her head to clear it, “spaced out,” then turns to her, “were the construction guys okay, by the way?”

“Oh yeah, they were great. Akeria was handling that like a champ, I even think they finished early because they were scared of her,” she laughs.

“I knew she’d handle it well, I’m happy with how it turned out,” she smiles, remembering all the phone calls from Akeria, updating her on everything with side commentary about one of the guys that she liked.

“So we start serving food after Christmas?” Kameron hands her the crate with beer.

“Yes, so that all orders of supplies arrive and the new waitress, Monique, has time to adjust,” Vanessa explains while quickly filling the fridge with beer.

Kameron nods, “Great, I’m really excited and can’t wait to meet the new girl.”

Vanessa was about to talk more about Monique when a familiar group enters the bar - Nina, Trixie, Katya and Brooke. They all walk directly to the bar but Brooke waves them off, “you guys sit down, I’ll order”, earning herself three knowing smiles before they take off toward the free booth.

“You checking up on me, Mami?” Vanessa teases when Brooke comes to the right side of the bar.

“No,” she smiles, “we’re here to celebrate. Trixie and Katya got engaged last night,” she leans against the bar, “so we’d like a bottle of champagne for the table.”

“Oh! How wonderful!” Vanessa feeling the happiness spread through her and a touch of sentimentality because she’s been witnessing their relationship from the very beginning, “I’ll bring it over right now.”

“Thanks,” Brooke hesitates before she leaves, and Vanessa, on an impulse, sends her a small air kiss which makes her chuckle and return it with a wink before going back to the table.

She takes the tray and places the bottle in the ice bucked on it, along with four champagne glasses and starts to leave.

“Wow, what’s the occasion?” Kameron comments

Vanessa turns around, “Katya and Trixie got engaged.”

“How sweet, congratulate them for me,” Kameron smiles, “and say hi to your girlfriend,”.

“Still not my girlfriend,” Vanessa says without missing a beat, fully aware her friend was obviously fishing.

“Mhm, sure,” Kameron scoffs and goes back to work.

She walks over to the booth and is met with very excited faces.

“Vanessa!” Trixie greets her first, making her grin. She places the tray down on the table and turns toward the happy couple, “congrats you two.”

“Thank you,” Trixie says and Katya adds, “sit with us, it’s only right.”

Vanessa pauses, “I don’t know…,” then looks at Brooke who has no expression whatsoever but before she could say anything else Trixie continues, “c’mon, I’m not taking no for an answer.”

She glances at Brooke once again, who just silently scoots in to make space for her to sit. Even though she really has a nice friendship with Katya and is good with Trixie and Nina, she is assuming that this is more them trying to be slick because of her relationship with Brooke. Vanessa almost snorts out loud at the same butting in that Brooke is also probably experiencing from her friends.

“So how did it happen?” Vanessa asks, and both of them immediately grin which is so adorable.

Katya signals Trixie to talk, “We were sitting on our couch, talking about our day and I was apparently a world-class comedian that night because she was laughing like crazy but then she just stopped, all of a sudden, so I asked her ‘What? What is it?’”, Trixie shakes her head before continuing, “and this unromantic idiot just says to me ‘Nothing, I just want to marry you’.”

Vanessa notices Katya blush, which is something she never saw before, and then Katya adds, “I didn’t have a ring, nothing prepared. I thought it and said it. So we talked about it and now we have to go shopping for rings.”

“Very adult,” Brooke comments making Vanessa chuckle and point out, “but very sweet.”

They glance at each other and smile shortly.

“And very like Katya which is why I loved it,” Trixie kisses her cheek. Nina chimes in then, “on that note, time to toast!” She takes the bottle and carefully opens it, pouring it in the glasses.

They all take a glass except Vanessa and clink them, “To Trixie and Katya!” and take a sip.

Then Katya notices that Vanessa is not drinking and pouts, “no, wait, you don’t have glass.”

She waves her hand, “it’s okay, I’m working, I shouldn’t drink anyway.” Vanessa really didn’t mind, wasn’t a fan of champagne and didn’t like drinking at her bar since becoming an owner. But then Nina persisted, “we celebrating here, you can have a little sip.”

Vanessa thinks for a second, then feels a hand placed on her thigh making her look at Brooke who offers her own glass. She raises her brow, softened by the small gesture, so she takes it and drinks a sip of it, “there, happy?” she looks at the rest of them, chuckling, and judging by their smirks, they are.

She returns the glass back to Brooke who places it on the table, in the middle, so that Vanessa can easily reach it as well and her hand doesn’t leave her thigh, only moving a bit higher, which pleasantly surprises Vanessa.

“I still can’t believe Katya is getting married,” Nina comments, taking another sip of the champagne.

Vanessa agrees, “Same, from the moment I met her, I never thought I’d see the day.”

Katya laughs, then addresses Vanessa, “Oh god, you’re the actual saint. I was hogging that bar, talking your ear off about everything and then made you into a therapist when this one, “she points at Trixie, “entered my life.”

She really had fun with Katya while she was frequent at the bar, the thoughts that were going through that head were always fascinating to listen to and the complex issues she had with any form with commitment really made Vanessa believe that she’d never be in a relationship let along get married.

“It was interesting to listen to, never heard such serious commitment issues, I still remember you wanting to move to another hospital cause you couldn’t deal with being offered a head of the neurology. And your refusal to buy an apartment, cause ‘what if you want to move immediately’,” Vanessa recalls, doing the air quotes and chuckling.

All of them start laughing, Katya covering her face.

“Wow, someone with worse commitment issues than Brooke, I cannot believe,” Nina adds dramatically, making Brooke’s and Vanessa’s head snap towards her.

“And then Katya leaves that no-commitment club first, which to this day is unbelievable to me,” Trixie shakes her head, looking at Katya who touches her cheek and winks.

“She’s also older, so I’d say I still have time,” Brooke says which stings Vanessa a little, especially when all of them immediately glance at her. But then Brooke rubs her thigh shortly, softly squeezes it before stilling her hand once again and leaving it there.

It makes Vanessa feel a bit better, but it doesn’t remove the sting. So she just reminds herself to trust her instincts and focus on the conversation that already moved to wedding plans.

…

Ever since the celebration at the bar, Brooke couldn’t shake the conversation or the hurt expression she saw on Vanessa.

It didn’t surprise her at all that her friends invited Vanessa to sit with them. All of them aware of what was going on between them. What worried her was the possibility of them putting her on the spot, which they absolutely did.

Brooke is usually very private about her personal life and she’s especially private with Vanessa. So she knew it was a matter of time before they tried to get some answers. Especially because this is not a normal occurrence for Brooke.

The moment commitment issues were brought up, she felt her whole body freeze. In any other occasion, she wouldn’t bat an eye, because everything said was true, she’d even probably joke with them. Plus, they were actually pretty mild in pestering, in comparison to other times when they teased her about it.

But, Vanessa was there this time. Vanessa, who knew about it, because they talked about it in the very beginning. Things are very different now, even though Brooke didn’t expect the possibility of her thinking about committing to another person, to try and have a relationship, it happened.

She was still in the process of working through it, which was not easy at all, hoping that she’d somehow along the way know when she’s ready to open that conversation with Vanessa.

Now, after her friends brought it up once again, she felt like she just made everything worse and ruined what they had, because that was the first time Brooke saw Vanessa show even the tiniest bit of hurt at something Brooke said or done. And it was eating her alive. She tried to make it better, somehow have her translate the soft touch on her thigh as _‘please don’t worry about it_’ or _‘I’m trying now’, _but she doesn’t know if it really worked. Vanessa did relax and continued on with the conversation, but she doesn’t know for sure.

And that’s why she’s currently freaking out in the break room, not even touching her lunch.

“Uuuh, Brooke Lynn has her overthinking cap on,” Katya drops down on the chair across her.

She looks up, “Huh? No, I’m just thinking.”

“Please,” Katya huffs, “I can see the little wheels turning hundred miles an hour in your pretty little head.”

Brooke bites her lip, “I…Hm…” she doesn’t know if she wants to talk about it but she also kind of does.

“C’mon, spill it,” she opens her salad, “I’m at your service, nothing too crazy for me.”

Brooke thinks about it, what does she even say, how to even express her concern, only thing making it easy is the fact that she really feels most comfortable talking about it with Katya.

“How did you know with Trixie?” she finally asks making Katya’s corner of her mouth quirk up.

“I see,” she nods, “figured it was about that.”

Brooke looks at her lunch again, stabbing the fork in and taking a bite. Katya nods and takes breath before starting.

“A long time ago, almost year into our relationship, I had a minor freak-out and started questioning it because it dawned on me that this is serious,” Katya laughs at herself, “and I brought it up with Trixie, asked her a bunch of random questions, barely making sense, because in that moment it was hard for me to understand the need to just choose a person and now you are together forever. It was still a ridiculous notion in my brain, cause nothing is forever.”

Brooke nods along, can already picture Trixie sitting calmly while Katya is just pacing around, rambling.

“So after my nonsense, Trixie smiles and tells me she was just waiting for this to happen but that she’s glad I brought it up with her instead of just running. Which shocked me, because it was true, with everything else I’d be just be ‘this is not gonna work, I’m leaving’. And then the other thing that stuck out to me, was when she said that there is no need for another person, she can go through her life and survive alone, no problem, but she preferred surviving with me,” Katya pauses, smiling softly by the end, “then told me that as long as I prefer surviving with her as well, we’d fine, and when I don’t anymore I’m free to leave. And to this day, 5 years later she’s still my favourite person.”

Brooke lets the words sink in, “you never told me this.”

“Good thing I didn’t then, cause this is probably the right time for you to hear it,” she smirks, taking a sip of her water.

“You and I are not the same, my problems come from a different place than yours and for you it’s scary in a different way, but you’ve known Vanessa for good three months now and you’re showing no desire to run. I don’t know much about your relationship but I’d say, talk to her.”

Brooke scratches her forehead, “Yeah,” then takes another bite of her food, “thank you though.” To which Katya just winks.

…

Vanessa, on the other hand, was having a similar but still very different conversation about it.

“How long you’ll let this go along? Bitch she never gonna talk about it,” Silky rolls her eyes, Akeria humming in agreement.

They were very excited about the fact that Brooke basically introduced her to her closest friends, thinking that this meant they are now an item. But when Vanessa told them everything they talked about, their mood shifted immediately.

“You don’t understand, it’s not that easy for her,” Vanessa defends her. She knows about her family and how she was raised. Her father left them early on and her mother still doesn’t really accept the fact that she is not going to marry a man and have three kids raised in a textbook Christian household. Add the perfectionism and complete dedication to her work, it’s no wonder why she’s like this.

“Yeah maybe we don’t, but we know you and only care about the fact that it’s not going to be easy for you if she up and left because somewhere along the way she decides this is not for her,” Akeria chimes in, “I can see you’re already in deep.”

Vanessa shakes her head, exasperated, “That can happen with anybody, as we’ve already seen.”

“Yes, but with this one, it’s almost a sure thing,” Silky adds.

“Look,” Vanessa looks at both of them, “I know she cares about me. I know she’s trying and I know how I feel about it. And if this is the biggest problem we have, I’m fine with it, because I know it will be worked out.”

Silky crosses her arms, “how do you know it will be worked out, I don’t see her handing you a note with ‘will you be my girlfriend, yes, no or maybe’.”

“And she doesn’t have to yet, because I feel very secure, I don’t need an official title to know she’s committed.” Vanessa states.

Silky narrows her eyes and Akeria also doesn’t seem like she’s convinced, “Vanj-“, she starts but is interrupted by Brooke walking in. She notices that all of them look at her, which makes her blush as she walks toward them.

Vanessa goes to the side of the bar, away from them, to greet her.

“I feel like I interrupted something,” Brooke comments when she sits in her usual spot and directs a small wave toward Akeria and Silky who return it.

“You didn’t,” Vanessa lies because she’s grateful that it was interrupted, “you okay, Mami?”

Brooke leans on the bar, “yes, thought I’d pop in before my hair appointment and finally see how the kitchen turned out.”

Vanessa immediately feels the excitement that now always comes when she thinks about the expansion, “oh yeah, you still haven’t seen it. You wanna go now, or you want to drink something first?”

“Let’s go now, then tea.” Brooke gets up from the chair.

Vanessa takes off her apron then leads the way to the kitchen, turning on all the lights. The sight still surprises her, seeing it realizing makes her feel proud of herself and she can’t wait for her aunt to see it as well, hoping she’ll make her proud as well.

“Wow,” Brooke looks around, “it’s amazing,” then takes another step into the room touching the counter, “they did such a good job.”

Vanessa follows her in and stands next to her, “yeah, they did.”

Then Brooke shifts more towards her, moving her arm around Vanessa’s waist and pulling her slightly against Brooke. “Are you happy?” she focuses her attention on Vanessa who gets a tiny bit distracted by how blue her eyes look under these lights.

“I am, everything is falling into place,” she places her arm around Brooke’s waist and takes another look at the kitchen, “and even though it’s premeditated, I feel proud.”

“You should feel proud,” Brooke says, “you’re working very hard.”

Vanessa grins, then pulls Brooke towards to kiss her. Only a couple of pecks, as a way of saying thank you.

“Now, tea,” Brooke smiles when they separate.

As they walk back to the bar, Brooke’s arm does leave her waist, but she leaves her hand on the low of Vanessa’s back, making her giddy, enjoying the small affection.

Vanessa makes her green tea right away and hands it to her.

“When are your aunts and mom arriving?” Brooke asks her.

Just the mention of them, makes Vanessa smile, she hasn’t seen them since last year and she was missing them, “On Monday, they went to Rosalie’s family first,” then she snaps her fingers, remembering, “that reminds me, I’m going shopping tomorrow, for groceries and everything. Want to come with me? I can make us dinner after.”

“Sure, count me in. I have to go shopping as well,” Brooke says, “we are both mornings right?”

“Yeah, so sometime in the afternoon,” Vanessa nods.

“Great, just text me whenever, I’m free.” It was a relief Brooke accepted the invite, because she realized that they wouldn’t see each other until after Christmas so she was hoping to squeeze in some Brooke time before her family arrives.

Vanessa then has to take an order from a customer, breaking their conversation for a minute.

“So you’re really working on both Christmas Eve and Christmas?” she asks when she comes back to Brooke.

Brooke takes a sip of her tea, “Yes, it’s my own little ritual.”

She hesitates before asking, not sure if she’d be crossing a line, but it has bothered her since Brooke told her about it, “but won’t you feel lonely?”

It seems like she’s not bothered by the question, even laughing a bit, “Trust me, I feel more alone being back home, where my mom pretends I’m straight in front of our relatives, subtly making offhand comments how my lifestyle is not correct, my sister fighting with her husband the whole time and my uncle getting drunk to the point where he only talks about how this country has gone to shit.”

Vanessa feels her heart clench at Brooke’s words even though it’s not news to her. They don’t talk about her family that much, but from what she has told Vanessa, it’s not great. And it makes her sad every time, wishing she could just make it somehow better, despite knowing she can’t.

“I’m sorry,” she says, mostly apologizing for bringing it up.

Brooke shrugs, “don’t be, I stopped caring about it a long time ago.” She pushes her finished tea aside, “plus, the little ones, as you would say, keep me in very good company.”

Vanessa takes the cup and points at Brooke, “they better or they’ll have a word with me,” which makes her giggle. 

…

Brooke has just finished doing yoga when Vanessa texted her about their shopping plans. So she texted her back that she’ll meet her there because she needs to shower. Brooke couldn’t believe herself, she is excited about going shopping, activity that she usually finds dreadful. But, she guesses, it’s because she’s happy they decided to do something before both of them get busy with the holidays.

Thankfully, Nina left her car home because Monet picked her up, so Brooke is able to drive there.

When she arrives, Vanessa is already waiting for her at the main entrance of the store. She is wearing black jeans and a sweater that has Grinch wearing a Christmas hat on it.

“Hi!” Vanessa greets her as soon as she sees her and Brooke gives her a short hug.

“Aren’t you too hot in that?” Brooke comments on the outfit, the LA weather not meant for thick sweaters.

Vanessa frowns then looks down on her outfit, “Oh. Well, kinda, but I’m pushing through because it’s Christmas time which means Christmas sweaters,” she strikes a pose and grins.

“I see,” Brooke immediately amused by her, a small laugh escaping her lips.

They make their way into the store, Brooke takes a shopping cart while Vanessa pulls out a full page list of things she needs to buy scribbled all over the paper like she was randomly writing it down as she remembered what she needs.

Even though Brooke could never follow that list, Vanessa knew exactly what she needs. They did spend a lot of time in the vegetable aisle both of them trying to pick out the best ones to buy. Brooke thought she was the only one who always examined every pepper, carrot, potato, tomato and every other vegetable before putting it in a bag, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Vanessa do it as well.

As they moved along the store, in a planned way provided by Brooke, their shopping cart was fuller by the second and Brooke was enjoying shopping for the first time ever.

They are currently in front of the last thing Vanessa needs to buy, which are Christmas themed napkins.

“Which ones do you like better?” Vanessa holds up three different packages, “these red ones with the gold stars, these with the Christmas tree or the Christmas balls ones?”

Brooke looked between all of them, usually not the one to pay attention to the napkins but since they were here 10minutes already, it seemed important to Vanessa.

“Hmm, I like the third ones. They’re more colourful,” she says because they stood out the most to her.

Vanessa examines them once again, putting the Christmas tree ones back on the shelf, now only looking at the red ones and the one with Christmas balls.

“You are right, they are more festive as well,” she nods to herself and places them in the cart.

Just as Brooke was about to turn to the cart, so they can go to the cashier, a confused voice is heard, “Vanessa?”

Both of them look toward the source of the sound and Brooke is taken aback by a petite woman with long blonde hair, dressed like she just stepped out of a Vogue magazine.

It seems like Vanessa is shocked as well, “Aquaria?” she says and takes a step back not realizing how close Brooke is which makes her bump into her. Brooke steadies her with a hand on her hip, which she purposely doesn’t remove now that she knows who that is.

Both of them look at each other for a second, Vanessa already tense and Aquaria looking remorseful.

“What are you doing here?” Vanessa asks her with a slight edge to her voice.

Aquaria takes a step forward, “I’m spending Christmas with my family,” she pauses, “I was gonna call you,” she continues but Vanessa interjects, “Why?”

“I, um,” she looks at Brooke’s hand on Vanessa’s hip then at Brooke, “I wanted to talk, and apologize.”

Vanessa crosses her arms, “I don’t think there’s anything to talk about.”

“I don’t like how we left things, I just want to make things right,” Aquaria’s seems like she’s almost pleading.

“And whose fault is that?” Vanessa’s tone accusatory, but then she takes a breath, “look, there’s no bad blood, I just don’t want to get into it anymore. You’ve made the choices you made, there is no going back.”

Aquaria looks sad at the words for a second then looks at Brooke again, “you are not even gonna introduce me?”

At that, Vanessa’s hands curl into tight fists, even Brooke didn’t like the way she asked that. Vanessa’s voice practically biting when she starts, “this is my g-,” then stops, exhaling, “Brooke.”

Aquaria shortly rises her eyebrow then smiles, “nice to meet you,” and Brooke just says, “same,” because she doesn’t like how she made Vanessa feel.

“Well, this has been great, but we have to go,” Vanessa moves from Brooke to the cart and pushes it, walking by Aquaria, “Merry Christmas, Aquaria.”

“Merry Christmas, Vanessa,” Aquaria says quietly when they both have already passed her.

…

By the time they arrived at her apartment, Vanessa finally calmed down. Thankfully there wasn’t a long line at the store, so they bagged everything pretty quick and drove off. Brooke didn’t ask anything, probably sensing that she needs to give her some space.

It wasn’t like she was hurt, or even dwelling on the past. She was just angry. Even though it was now over eight months since she’d seen Aquaria, the anger she felt was apparently still there.

But, after Brooke helped her store all the things she bought and Vanessa was about to start making njoki with mushrooms and chicken, Aquaria was brought up.

“Soo, what was that about?” Brooke spoke up as she sat down at the bar counter across from Vanessa.

Vanessa started chopping up the chicken, “Her grovelling now because of her mistakes.”

“I saw that,” Brooke says, then after a moment, “what did she do?”

“You want the whole story?” Vanessa turns around, “cause it might take a while,” she laughs, but it’s humourless.

“Yes please, I’m interested to see what had to happen to make you look angry,” she leans her chin on her hands.

Vanessa moves the stuff from counter to the bar so her back isn’t turned to Brooke while she preps the food.

“Okay, so we met five years ago while I was out with Akeria and Silky. We were sitting at a bar downtown, already tipsy when she approached me and we hit it off. I didn’t go home with her that night because she had a shoot early in the morning, but she asked for my phone number so we can go on a date,” Vanessa starts, chopping the chicken again.

“Was this right after Adore?” Brooke asks

Vanessa shakes her head, “No, Adore and I broke up 3 years before that, though I had dated a bit it was never anything serious,” she sees Brooke nod and continues, “anyways, so we went on a date and it was the best one I had during that time. We really cliqued and started dating. She was so much fun and everything seemed too good to be true. I was working at the bar, finishing my diploma and she was building a really successful modelling career. We were very happy, so happy that after two years in the relationship I was sure I’d marry her,” she finishes with the chicken and moves to the mushrooms, noticing the gasp that left Brooke’s mouth when she said that.

“We just started talking about possibly moving in together, almost three years in, but then she got her first New York fashion week gig. So she said to pause that conversation for now and I said ‘fine’, thinking it makes sense, with her possibly travelling more, a move to another apartment is too much. Plus, she kept saying she didn’t want me to be alone in our apartment all the time, because she’d basically never be there,” Vanessa rolls her eyes at the memory and continues.

“Anyways, she was constantly reaching new heights and becoming more and more popular which led to her being more and more distant. Anytime I’d bring it up, she’d say that it’s not her fault and that she can’t not work non-stop because this is fashion industry, no slowing down…ridiculous.” Vanessa places the chicken on the stove and starts cooking it.

“As the time went on, she was less and less in LA and any interaction between us was at bare minimum. But every time she’s sense me pull away, she’d reel me back in with some grand gesture. It took me a whole year to realize I was unhappy and this is not a relationship. First time we actually had a fight about it,” she notices Brooke’s eyes widen, “yes, first time. We didn’t really fight at all,” she acknowledges the unspoken question.

“Anyway, first time was when I told her that it’s unfair of her to say she doesn’t have time to see me or even call me properly when I see her partying or going out with her friends in New York, more than I see her working. She was, of course, deflecting and said that we’d talk about it when she gets to LA three days later because she had to work.” Vanessa adds the mushrooms and goes to take a sip of water.

She leans on the counter and looks at Brooke again, who is now frowning, her hands crossed.

“That night I was looking through Instagram when I saw a video on one of her closest friend’s profile. In the background of the video, there was Aquaria, grinding against some girl and making out with her.”

“She cheated on you?” Brooke’s jaw dropped and she uncrossed her arms to lean back on the counter.

“Yup. And that’s when I snapped. I told her to call me when she wakes up and she did. I told her I saw that and she had the nerve to tell me that it was normal in their circles to do that and that she did it because she was upset about our fight. We argued a bit more but during that conversation I realized that there was no point in it. I deserved more that all of that, no matter how happy we were for the first three years,” she shrugs, “but the words that were exchanged then are not forgotten and I don’t plan on having her in my life, even if this is the third time she tried to hash things out with me. I probably got upset now because I haven’t seen her since, everything else was over text or call,” Vanessa finishes.

“Well that was shitty of her. I got upset just listening to it,” Brooke shakes her head.

Vanessa checks on the stove then looks back, “the stringing along was what really pissed me off, and the dishonesty,” she takes a breath and exhales, “well, it is what it is, it’s turned out for the better anyways.”

Brooke gets up, walks over to Vanessa to hug her from behind. “I’m sorry,” she rests her chin on Vanessa’s shoulder, “you didn’t deserve that.”

Vanessa places her hand over Brooke’s on her waist, “It’s fine, Mami, all in the past.”

Brooke squeezes her tight once, then kisses her temple before letting her go. “On that note, when’s lunch?” she teases, making Vanessa laugh and hit her with a cloth.

…

“Honey, you could’ve just asked your girl to join us,” Maritza interrupts Vanessa in texting Brooke.

“What?” Vanessa looks up from her phone, she was responding to Brooke’s picture of the empty waiting room in her wing, something that only happens during the holidays.

Vanessa was enjoying Christmas Eve with her family, they were just about finished with dinner, but she was talking to Brooke here and there, just in case she needs it.

“Are we talking about the doctor?” her mum comes back to the table, carrying the cookies.

Vanessa takes one of the cookies, “she’s a surgeon, and she’s working,” she takes a bite, then covers her mouth to speak, “also, she definitely ain’t ready to meet you lot.”

“How are things going with her, is she nice to you?” Rosalie chimes in, pouring wine to Maritza.

“Yeah, she’s good to me,” Vanessa smiles, “I really like her.”

Annabel smiles at that, “Mija, if she’s making you smile like that, she’s doing something right.”

“Are you seeing her for Christmas?” Maritza takes a sip of her wine, leaning into Rosalie.

Vanessa talked to them about Brooke, actually more than to her friends, because she’s lucky enough to have such a nice free space between them to talk without any pretence or judgement. Also, because her aunt is the first person she ever talked to about girls, both of them very similar in that aspect, which made base for such wonderful and fun conversations throughout the years.

“We made plans for day after, she works on Christmas as well,” Vanessa says.

Maritza expression saddens, “Oh poor girl. You should’ve really told her to celebrate with us, we’d behave, promise.”

Vanessa chuckles, “It’s her thing. She, apparently, likes doing it,” her phone dings with a text from Brooke. “Maybe next year,” she absentmindedly says, while she checks her messages.

…

The only day in the year when hospital is the calmest and quietest, is on Christmas, especially during the day. And in a way, it feels like a personal new year’s for Brooke every time. It’s a day where she reflects the most, where she gets to take in and appreciate her life. There is almost no one around and there is nothing scheduled. Her own, recently found, peace.

Last time she went home for Christmas was four years ago, the whole experience too forced and she felt like she was counting seconds before she’d leave. Now, she voluntarily takes the night shift on Christmas Eve and day shift for Christmas, because she knows her colleagues all have families they want to be with and she doesn’t mind being at work. But primarily, she has no one to go home for. No expectations of her from anybody on this day.

In the last three years, she only had two emergency surgeries on Christmas, the rest of time she’d do roundups, look into new research and visit the kids that are stuck in the hospital. The only sad thing about this day is seeing parents struggle to leave when they’d have to, especially on Christmas Eve.

So she liked going to her patients and make her check-ups longer, allow them to show off the presents they got and share stories, possibly eat some candy with them if they are allowed to. It seems to make them feel better and she hopes it makes them feel less alone. Because it makes her feel less alone.

“Merry Christmas, doctor Hytes,” her favourite nurse greets her from the station.

“Merry Christmas, Rose,” she smiles. Every year, she is the one here with her. After her husband passed away, she focused all of her time on the hospital. But Brooke liked her most of all because she always knows what Brooke wants and understands her in a way no nurse ever does.

So having Rose during these two days, makes it even better, “I’m assuming you’re doing check-ups instead of me, so I’ve prepared the charts for you.” She pushes the stack toward Brooke.

“Yes,” Brooke takes them, “thank you.”

Rose then pulls out a medium-sized red metal box, “I’ve made some homemade gingerbread cookies, so you can give them to the kiddos.”

Brooke softens, placing the box on top of the charts, “You are too kind, I will give it to them, thank you.”

“Let’s hope, next year is the one where I hand out the cookies and you’re not stuck here,” she makes a short prayer gesture.

Brooke chuckles, “You know this is by choice, so I wouldn’t count on it.”

“I know honey,” she then rubs Brooke’s upper arm, “I’m hoping you’ll finally have a reason to choose differently.”

Brooke starts, “I-“, but Rose briefly squeezes her arm and lets go, “Don’t have to explain yourself to me. Say hi to the kiddos and I’ll see you.” She directs her a small smile before leaving.

She noticed that there aren’t many of her patients in here, only a bunch of charts, others Yvie’s or Alyssa’s which Rose already checked up on. Which made her check-up time shorter than usual, last one lasting longer than all combined. She got carried away with building a model airplane with Ethan, who got it for Christmas, among other things, to keep him occupied. She really enjoyed doing it, so much that, for a brief moment, she thought about buying herself one. But now realizes it was the fun she had with the kid not the actual toy that she enjoyed, so she stopped herself from even googling it. She shakes her head at her own ridiculousness as she walks toward her office.

Later, by looking at her watch, she notices it is already 9pm and she is just about finished with the video on a new surgical technique when there is a knock on her door.

“Come in,” she says, pausing the video and looking up just in time to see Vanessa’s grinning face pop in.

“Hi!” she then pushes the door and enters, carrying a big festive bag. Brooke didn’t expect her to come here at all. She was supposed to be with her aunt and mom, Brooke up to date with what they were doing and eating by the pictures Vanessa had sent throughout the day. It looked how any Christmas should be spent, surrounded with your loving family, having fun and stuffing yourself with good food. The polar opposite of the Christmases she had experienced, at least during her adult life.

“Hi, what are you doing here?” Brooke gets up, surprised and goes over to hug her, feeling the familiar warmth spread over when Vanessa squeezes her tighter before letting go.

“I come bearing gifts,” she lifts the bag as Brooke leads her by hand on the small couch.

They sit down, “Not that I’m not glad to see you, but we’d see each other tomorrow, you should’ve stayed with your family. I’m sure they missed you.”

“I know, but I got impatient. And the thought of you being alone all day is not sitting right with me,” and Brooke wants to interrupt her but Vanessa raises her hand, “no I know, this is Brooke time, your choice, new years, whatever. But Vanessa’s Christmas time includes all who she holds dear, so no point in fighting it.” She taps the hand that was holding hers and places the bag between them.

When those words left her mouth, Brooke is left speechless with ringing in her ears from the weight that held for her. She knew Vanessa cared about her and she cared about Vanessa. A lot. She cared about her a lot. Though, having that voiced to her made it real and big catching her off guard.

While she was stuck just looking at her, Vanessa was pulling out containers of food out of the bag, “Anyways I brought some leftovers so we can have dinner, we made so much food, my god, and there is chocolate cake as well and cookies,” while she was talking, the pile of different food just got bigger and bigger between them, “my mom went a little crazy with packing it, like we’re feeding the hospital, not just the two of us,” she shakes her head.

“That is a lot of food,” Brooke comments dumbly, still feeling lost in all of it, not knowing what to say.

“I know,” Vanessa chuckles, “hope you’re hungry.”

Brooke looks around, “lets set up on the desk, I’ll make space.” And Vanessa nods, both of them getting up. Thankfully, Brooke doesn’t keep a lot of stuff on her desk, so it’s a quick sweep.

Vanessa moves the containers to the desk and pulls out two paper plates, forks and a small tablecloth. “You really came prepared,” Brooke comments when she sees her set up a makeshift dinner table. Now that she’s looking at all the food, she’s really starting to get hungry.

“Of course I did, this is a proper Christmas dinner – hospital edition, I ain’t playing,” she huffs.

Both of them sit down and Brooke still can’t believe that this is an actual thing that’s happening, but she’s so happy that it is. Vanessa thought of her. She always thought of her and Brooke never had to say anything, she just knew, because she listened and cared. All of it washing over her, settling in and making her skin tingle.

While Vanessa is talking about the cooking story she mentioned over text, Brooke realizes that in the next year, even though unsure about what’s exactly happening with them, she knows she wants Vanessa there. And she’s not scared of that thought today, but she is scared Vanessa might not know it, especially after that whole thing about commitment issues club.

She takes another bite of the food, almost moaning at the taste because it was so well prepared. “This is so good,” she says, “how will any future Christmas meal top this?”

Vanessa laughs, “thank you,” then pauses and bites her lip, “I probably can’t top it, but I can do it again next time.”

“Is that a promise?”

Her eyebrows shoot up and it takes her a second to answer, “Yes,” her lips slowly spreading into a smile, “promise.”

They continue the easy conversation, Vanessa expanding on titbits she sent and Brooke talking about her day. It is simply wonderful. She almost regrets not having any Christmas lights in the office, to give the room a colourful glow to fit the mood around them.

“I almost bought a model for myself, honestly,” she tells her about Ethan, making Vanessa laugh and cover her eyes, “it was so fun, what can I say,” she shrugs, “but it’s probably not the same, building it by yourself.”

“I’d guess it’s not,” Vanessa’s laugh slowly quiets down and after a beat asks, “Do you plan on having kids?”

Brooke hesitates, for the first time, at that question, “I don’t. I never really saw it for me, especially the labour and birth. If I’m honest, I never saw a family life in my future. I used to think that is just not in my cards.”

The _used to, _slips out before she can help it, making her anxious. But when she studies Vanessa’s face for a sign of disappointment at the answer, there is none. Only a slight crease in her forehead, more contemplating than anything else.

“I want kids…or at least one”, she starts, “and I really want to have my own,” she looks at Brooke and shrugs.

“I think you’d make a wonderful mom,” Brooke says and she means it. And if an image of a little girl running around chasing the cats like a small ball of energy flashes in her mind, making her heart beat faster, nobody has to know.

Vanessa blushes, “yeah?,” and Brooke nods, “I think you’d be amazing as well,” she continues, looking hopeful.

“I know I’d be bad at buying presents, that’s for sure,” Brooke remembers the small gift she got two days prior, for Vanessa, not sure if she missed the mark. Gift giving inducing panic into Brooke since 1986. Mostly because of not being able to buy the perfect gift for someone.

“Pf,” Vanessa starts, then her eyes widen, “Oh! I almost forgot, I bought you something!” She takes the bag from the couch and sits back down. She pulls out a small wrapped present and hands it over to Brooke.

Even though she bought Vanessa a present, she didn’t expect one but it’s very like her, to get Brooke a present.

She unwraps it and a sudden laugh leaves her. It is a lavender coloured apron with a ‘I like big Bundts’ and a drawing of that cake.

“I can’t with you,” she giggles, “where did you find this?” she keeps staring at it.

Vanessa smiles, clearly pleased, “Saw it in a bakery near my accountant firm, immediately thought of you. It’s time you use your own apron,” her smile widens, “do you like it?”

“Like? I love it! And the big Bundts,” she smirks, “but you already know that.”

It makes a beautiful rosy colour take over her cheeks, “you’re ridiculous.”

Brooke hugs the apron to her chest, “and you’re my favourite person.” And if she wished for Christmas lights before, she doesn’t anymore, because that made Vanessa’s whole face light up, eyes getting a soft twinkle nothing could imitate.

She then gets up and walks over to Brooke, who pushes her chair out so she can sit in her lap. Vanessa’s hands settle on Brooke’s cheeks and she gives her the sweetest kiss.

“I got you something too,” she rubs her palm up and down Vanessa’s back before opening the drawer and pulling out a small pot with the Lithops plant, but a purple one.

“You did not get me the flower lady’s plant!” she takes it from Brooke, examining it, “oh my god. I actually went to a flower shop to see if I could see more of them. It such a weird plant.”

“This one can grow a flower from the middle, so I thought it would be fun to see that,” Brooke says, still feeling nervous about the gift.

“Really? So cool!” Vanessa touches the small plant and places it on the table. Then grabs Brooke’s face again, pulling her close, “thank you, I love it,” said in a whisper before pressing a soft kiss against her lips, then the top of her head when she hugs her close. 

If all of her Christmases could be like this and feel like this, she’d die a happy woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and special thank you for everybody that's been commenting <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii lovelies! 
> 
> I finally managed to update it. It's cca 9000 words because I got crazy and just wrote for three days straight hahaha.   
It looks like it's still not the end, I can't seem to let it go. 
> 
> Special thanks to @barbiehytes for dress ideas <3
> 
> Thank you all for reading and giving it love, I really appreciate it. Always makes my day <3 <3 <3
> 
> Ps. sorry for any mistakes, I suck at proof reading :(  
Anyways, here it is!

Brooke was pushing through her shift, but it was really difficult to do it on no sleep. In moments like these, she became painfully aware she’s getting old – two sleepless nights and she can barely function. It is also making her moody which she is able to manage, happy that she’s only interacting with children for the most part of her shift, they are the only thing incapable of pushing her buttons.

Rarely has she looked this much at her watch to see how long until she can go home, thankfully now, it was almost the end of her shift.

She is just rounding the corner from the surgical wing, when she bumps into Nina.

“Hi there Brookie, have you seen the announcement for the fundraiser?” she excitedly gets right into conversation, her friend’s energy levels very different from Brooke’s currently.

“Yes,” she curtly answers, making Nina squint her eyes for a second then her eyebrows rise.

She takes a step back, “Ohh, I know this Brooke,” she teasingly puts her hands up, “I’m backing away, no sudden moves.”

Brooke rolls her eyes, “you’re an asshole,” she says but is amused by her antics.

Nina covers her mouth in faux shock, “Language doctor Hytes, there are children here,” which makes Brooke narrow her eyes, shaking her head slightly, “but besides being an asshole, I know when not to poke the bear, so I’ll see you at home when you have slept it over,” Nina moves past her, waving at Brooke.

While she was being a little shit, Brooke appreciated how much Nina actually knew her. Even if they kept talking and Brooke was pissy, Nina wouldn’t have taken it to heart. So she just rubs her temples for the tenth time that day and goes to sit in the big waiting room that has the view of the whole city, to just breathe for a second.

She’s getting her fill of white noise around her and the sun setting when her phone starts vibrating.

Everything stops for a millisecond when she sees the letter V with a cocktail emoji.

“Hi, you okay?” Brooke leans back on her seat.

_“I’m calling to ask you that. Still breathing, Mami?”_ Vanessa’s voice comes through and Brooke closes her eyes for a second, letting it settle over her.

She sighs, “Still alive, counting seconds till I’m done,” she opens her eyes again, “though I know I won’t be able to fall asleep now.”

_“Why?”_ she immediately asks_, “you haven’t slept properly in two days, swear they are trying to kill you with this schedule.”_ Brooke can picture her shaking her head.

“The window has passed, now the adrenaline is keeping me up, need to tire myself out again. Thank god I’m free tomorrow.” She says as she plays with the corner of her coat.

There is a beat of silence before Vanessa speaks again, so Brooke knows she’s about to suggest something.

“_I was thinking of going to the movie theatre near me, they have like a ‘the best of 2000s’ week. So you are welcome to join, maybe a movie will make you sleepy again?”_ and she was right, Vanessa did have a suggestion.

“Hm,” the only thing making her hesitate is not wanting to be moody in Vanessa’s presence, but she also really wants to be in her presence, but doesn’t get a chance to say anything because Vanessa continues, _“If that doesn’t tire you out I know some other activity that might,”_ she can hear that she’s smirking.

Brooke chuckles, “That would just make me wide awake again,” her mind goes back to five days ago, when she made Vanessa come four times in a row and she would’ve gone for five, feeling the high from making her fall apart, if only Vanessa hadn’t stopped her, too overwhelmed. It was a wonderful way to start the new year.

She gets lost in thought apparently, her body buzzing and alert again, when she hears Vanessa speak again, _“Brooke? Did you fall asleep on me?” _

“No, no. I’m here,” she responds immediately, “movie sounds good.”

Vanessa exhales, _“great. Text me when you leave?”_

“Deal,” Brooke nods to herself, starting to smile, “I have an appointment soon, so I have to go.”

_“Kay, see you soon_,” Vanessa’s chippery voice comes through, making Brooke chuckle again before biding her goodbyes.

She gets up, feeling the strain in her muscles, begging to lay down. The surgery she did prior lasted longer than expected, her shins taking revenge on her because she didn’t stretch before like she usually does if she thinks that it could last a bit.

It makes her question accepting Vanessa’s offer, it would be easier to just go home and try force herself to sleep. But then, she hasn’t seen Vanessa in five days which was only a happy coincidence that both of them were free on the 1st. Brooke got pretty used to seeing her every other day or at least once in three days. So, waiting a whole week for their Sunday lunch just seems too long, so no, she is definitely going tonight.

She’s nearing her office when she hears a familiar voice behind her, “I have an appointment with doctor Hytes, can you direct me to her office?”

“Oh just straight ahead,” the nurse starts, but when Brooke turns around she smiles and points at her, “and there’s doctor Hytes.”

_‘This has to be a joke_’, Brooke thinks when she sees Aquaria standing in front of her, looking unfairly pretty even under hospital lights. It seems like Aquaria was thinking the same, judging by the shock written on her face.

“You’re Mrs. Palandrani?” Brooke questions, feeling the pulsing in her head intensify. This is exactly what she did not need today.

Aquaria nods, “Yes, I use my last name only because rarely anyone knows it.”

“Why are you here? You’re far from a child and as far as I know you don’t have one,” Brooke tone turns accusatory, still not leading them to her office.

She nervously starts to play with her fingers, “I promise this has nothing to do with Vanessa. I did not know it was you when I made the appointment.”

Brooke doesn’t really believe her at first, but her eyes look pleading enough and she’s too much of a professional, so she opens the door to her office, letting her in.

Aquaria exhales a small thank you when she walks in and Brooke is convinced that the universe is working against her today. They both sit down, air of awkwardness filling the room making Brooke more annoyed by the second.

“I’m here on behalf of my close friend, her daughter has something called a Wilms tumour,” she pulls out a file and hands it to Brooke, “they noticed it too late and chemotherapy is just not helping. They live near San Diego and when I researched who to see in this area, every source recommended you. Though I should’ve probably googled your picture before coming here,” she laughs humourlessly.

Brooke looks through the files and it indeed looks bad, the doctors made a couple of errors in her opinion, if it was anybody else she’d immediately tell them to bring the girl in. Plan for treatment already forming in her head.

But she hesitates.

Aquaria seems to pick up on that, “please help her. I don’t care how much it costs, I’ll pay for everything.”

Brooke runs her fingers over the files again. It is clear to Brooke that she can only try to keep this professional but judging by the negativity she’s currently feeling toward Aquaria, accepting doesn’t seem like a good idea.

“This is a conflict of interest. I don’t think I should get involved,” her work voice coming out and Aquaria’s face falls instantly. Brooke continues then, “I can show this to my colleague Yvie, she is just as good as me. She can help you.”

From the legal perspective, it is probably not a conflict of interest, but right now, it definitely feels like it.

“It’s not. You won’t even see me, I promise,” she scoots to the edge of the chair, clasping her own hands, “I’m sure your colleague is great but I was told you’re one of the best, so please.”

Brooke takes a breath, playing with her pen. She might be just dead tired and unable to think straight but she can’t say no to this now. Especially because it’s not about Aquaria, it’s about the patient. But that doesn’t mean she can’t be mildly annoyed about who brought the case.

“Okay.” She stops playing with her pen, placing her hands on top of each other on the table.

Aquaria straightens up, “You’ll do it?”

“Yes,” she nods, then raises her hand, “but, I expect no involvement from you other than financial which is none of my concern. You can tell the parents to call me and we’ll arrange everything. I will no longer disclose anything about it with you after you leave this room.”

She takes the note with Brooke’s hospital number, “That’s totally fine. Thank you.”

Aquaria puts her things in her bag, puts her hands on the chair like she’s going to get up but pauses and looks back at Brooke.

“I’m sorry for what happened at the supermarket, it seems like this has been going on for a while and I guess…I guess I just didn’t expect her to move on so fast,” she does almost a sad shrug.

But Brooke just gets angry, maybe because she’s operating on low battery and maybe it’s because she did her Vanessa wrong.

“And I guess,” Brooke starts pointedly, raising her eyebrow slightly, “if she had been treated well, then she wouldn’t have to move on.”

Aquaria smiles than nods to herself, before looking back at Brooke, “Is this a polite way of saying ‘you snooze you lose’?” 

“Take it as you will,” she says as she gets up, ready to wrap this up.

Aquaria follows her motion and gets up as well. Brooke leads her to the door, but once again she turns around. Brooke almost rolls her eyes; prissiness in her just wants to kick her out. She’s really too tired for this.

“Vanessa needs someone who’s all in. Don’t lead her on.” Her expression is very stern and it immediately makes Brooke defensive. Aquaria has no right to speak for Vanessa, not after everything.

“Don’t worry, this time she has someone actually committed,” she answers coldly and opens the door. Aquaria looks like she’s about to say something but Brooke interrupts her, “Goodbye Aquaria.”

…

Vanessa has been crazy busy since they started serving food, the reception better than expected, but it meant more work, so she has been pulling longer shifts. But she was so happy. Happy it turned out well, that her customers like it, and she felt proud of herself. So staying longer at work was not a problem for her. Though, today was crazy busy and she wanted to unwind.

It seemed silly to go see a movie that she probably already has seen or can just watch it at home, but the change of the environment was necessary for her today. She even took herself out for early dinner to a middle eastern restaurant she hasn’t been to for so long. It was just what Vanessa needed. Well, it would’ve been better if Brooke was there too. That led to remembering to check up on her, which led to this – Vanessa opening the door to let Brooke in.

“Hi,” Brooke greets her immediately, a tired smile on her face but her eyes still held some light to them.

Vanessa rises on her toes, hands on Brooke’s hips for balance, to peck her lips, “You okay Mami?” she studies her face. There are obvious bags under her eyes and an echo of a frown is unmoving on her forehead.

“Mhm,” she nods her head, leaning down to peck her again. Vanessa doesn’t really believe her, and the last thing she wants is to make Brooke overdo it.

“Are you sure?”, she squeezes her hips, “we can totally just stay in. You look very tired,” she pauses, “still very pretty though, but you don’t have to indulge me,” she still tries to decipher her expression, only finding small amusement appear. “I should’ve just let you go home and sleep,” Vanessa continues rambling.

“Baby, don’t stress, please” Brooke shortly grazes the side of her jaw with her fingertips, “I’m good,” she winks.

Vanessa feels heat on her cheeks, reaction that ‘baby’ still entices in her. She tries not to show it and holds her index finger up, “Okay, but, if you want to leave at any point we will. Deal?”

Brooke chuckles, but agrees.

They walk to the movie theatre, Brooke insisting she needs some fresh air, but Vanessa knew from her small nervousness that there was another reason. There is a couple of minutes of comfortable silence accompanied by the back of their hands constantly bumping due to their closeness, which Brooke either doesn’t notice or she’s pretending and Vanessa doesn’t dare making that move. So it remains like that, until Brooke clears her throat.

“So, Aquaria came to the hospital today.”

Vanessa halts. She reels in her mind before jumping to conclusions and just asks, “Why?”, tone coming out a bit hard.

Brooke starts fidgeting with her fingers, now fully looking at her, “She asked me to treat a patient. I really shouldn’t disclose any further details, but I agreed to it.”

Automatically, her arms cross over her sternum, “Why did she come to you? I swear if this is her way of-“

“Because I’m highly recommended,” Brooke interrupts her, “and she seemed like she was telling the truth about not knowing it was me, immediately said it had nothing to do with you.”

Vanessa is well aware she can’t really forbid Brooke from treating a patient, and not like she ever would, but she is admittedly peeved that Aquaria is, in a way, back in her life.

“Though for full disclosure, she did ask about you at the end,” Brooke continues, straightening her already good back, “but I did not say anything,” she looks to the side, breaking eye contact. “And we agreed she won’t be involved in the treatment,” Brooke’s eyes meet hers again, “because…well, because it would be a conflict of interest.”

“Of course she did,” Vanessa rolls her eyes, thinks about what she meant by conflict of interest, small butterflies filling her stomach, but doesn’t thinks she’s ready to breach that conversation today. She sighs, “thank you for telling me, even though you didn’t have to.”

Brooke’s brow furrows, “I thought you’d be madder,” confusion in her voice.

A surprised laugh leaves Vanessa, “At this? You treating a patient and doing your job? No.” It makes Brooke’s shoulders visibly relax. Then Vanessa continues, “I’m annoyed that it in any shape or form involves Aquaria, but that’s about it.”

“It really won’t. I’ve set boundaries,” Brooke says, “I don’t like it either. If I’m honest, my headache came back as soon as I saw her.”

At that Vanessa chuckles, “I can imagine,” then she encircles her arm around Brooke’s waist pulling her against her, pointing at the movie theatre in front of them, “But it’s time for the only valid come back, which is in movie form, not an ex.” Brooke laughs and throws an arm around her shoulders, leading her to the counter to purchase tickets.

They end up picking Mr.&Mrs Smith, because Brooke never watched it.

It turns out to be a quite experience. Vanessa assumed that tiredness would loosen the filters that Brooke has, but she never envisioned it to be like this. As soon as they sit in the chairs, thankfully there were love seats available so that they could cuddle a bit, Brooke got annoyed at the movie. But it amused Vanessa so much, even though she was trash talking one of her favourite movies.

The cursed question at the beginning _“How often do you have sex?”_ and them being confused apparently triggered something because Brooke just scoffed and said “if you can’t answer that properly not even therapy will help you.”

She would throw out some critiques during the movie, like “this is not realistic, they both super spies and don’t find this out.”, “how is this couple goals for people, they don’t even realistically know each other”, “if Brad and Angelina didn’t have this much chemistry, this wouldn’t pass as a good movie”.

It was interesting to see how Brooke looked when she was on low battery, with barely any patience apparently. Vanessa enjoyed that more than the movie, especially since she would be lean her head lower to angrily-whisper, while her fingertips were making shapes on Vanessa’s stomach.

Due to all of it, this is now one of her top 5 movies just because she knows she’ll remember this. Moody Brooke is definitely funny, but still attentive to Vanessa in a way. She liked that Brooke not once threw any of it toward her, not even a “why are you making us watch this?”. Brooke watched it, gave her honest opinion (that is probably more dramatic because she was tired) and still, when the credits rolled, said that she really had a nice time. Not lying one bit.

As they go to walk out, she gets another pleasant surprise – Brooke once again throwing her arm over Vanessa’s shoulder. So they leave just like they came, together.

…

When they close the door to the apartment, Brooke grabs Vanessa’s face, pulling her in for a heated kiss. She responds immediately, even though she’s surprised by the seeming intent behind it. During the movie Brooke’s slight bitching gradually dissipated, by the end she was evidently getting sleepy. Reason why Vanessa called an Uber even though it’s a 20minute walk. While in the car, they haven’t spoken at all, Brooke’s half open lids watching the passing streets, her hand resting on Vanessa’s thigh.

They blindly walk towards the bedroom, not breaking the kiss, Brooke’s hands already migrating under her shirt, ready to remove it.

But Vanessa knows better, and while it fills her ego that even dead tired, Brooke is ready to get it, her girl needs sleep. When they fall into bed, she softens the kisses to light, almost lazy pecks and slowly pets her hair, other hand moving up and down her back in a calming manner.

She feels her relax into her more and more, barely kissing her anymore, even though her face is still mere inches from Vanessa’s face. She moves an inch back, smiling at Brooke basically falling asleep. But when she places a small peck next to her nose and guides her head down on her chest, Brooke completely sinks onto her, fully out.

“Sleep tight, Mami,” she whispers as she circles her arms around Brooke, moving her head down so she can breathe her in, letting sleep take her as well.

…

Brooke had the best sleep of her life last night, even though anxiety was eating her currently, as she was finally fully awake and entering her own apartment. She woke up to an empty bed and a small note on Vanessa’s pillow.

_Didn’t want to wake you, very pretty while you sleep, Mami. But also, you need the extra sleep. You know where the spare key is, and at this point just keep it ;) Gone to work, call me when you wake up <3._

She remembers that they were kissing and Brooke wanted to get her off but she fell asleep. She covers her face, embarrassed. Then the movie comes back to her, and now she groans. Vanessa told her it was one of her favourite movies and Brooke just straight up critiqued the whole thing like she knows any better.

“Brooke?” she is pulled out from her thoughts by Nina looking at her from the living room, with Apollo on her lap.

Brooke just walks in and throws herself on the couch, face first.

“Okay…what’s wrong with you?” Nina asks, voice careful.

“I’m stupid, that’s what’s wrong,” she mumbles into the pillow. At that, Nina’s voice gets confused, “I’m sorry, did you just say you’re stupid?”

Brooke then raises her head to just say, “yes”, then lets it fall back.

“Ohh, so it’s about Vanessa,” Nina chuckles, “what did you do Brookie?”

She sighs then moves to sit down on the couch, putting the pillow on her lap, “We went to see a movie that she likes and I was being a little bitch. Then I fell asleep on her in the middle of kissing,” she admits, throwing her hands in the air before covering her face again.

Henry jumps to Brooke’s lap, obviously sensing her anxiety, massaging her stomach with his little paws.

Nina lets out a laugh then stops herself, “sorry, it’s not funny,” even though Brooke knows this is quite entertaining for her friend, then she continues, “look, she had to meet moody Brooke at some point, it was bound to happen. We all know how you get when you are particularly worn out, we handle it just fine. So what did she say?” Apollo leaves Nina and sits next to Brooke as well.

“Nothing really, she left me a note, wanted to let me sleep and she had to go to work. I usually wake up immediately when she moves from me,” Nina’s cooing interrupts her, and she glares at her friend who then stops, “anyway, I don’t know what she’s thinking.”

“I’m sure Vanessa literally doesn’t care about you being moody,” Nina rolls her eyes, “give me the note,” she opens her hand.

Brooke reluctantly gives it to her, it feels a bit private to share it with Nina, even though nothing scandalous is written there, but it’s her handwriting and it felt like a good morning kiss when she read it first.

“You’re fine, if she was mad why would she leave you this,” Nina shakes her head, looking through the note, “you’re overthinking it. She said to call her when you wake up. Why didn’t you?”

Brooke strokes Henry lowering her head, “I don’t know, I just started spiralling.”

“Tsk, just call her. I’m sure it’s only in your head.”

“Yeah…” she says absentmindedly, letting the purrs clam her down.

After a moment Nina speaks again, “So, are we excited about the fundraiser gala? You are going right?”

Brooke sighs, “Sure, it should be fun, I mean, it’s not like I have a choice,” Brooke rolls her eyes. Her mind still on Vanessa.

“No need for you to be snippy…Mami,” Nina smirks, eyebrows wiggling.

It makes Brooke’s gaze snap back to her, “Okay, you know what,” she gets up, snatching the note from Nina, “you’re the worst.” And she goes to her room.

“Yeah yeah, I still saw that blush Brookie,” Nina yells after her.

…

On the other side of town, Vanessa was actually worrying if Brooke had maybe died. It was past 2pm and she still hasn’t called. When Vanessa left at 11am, Brooke did not even flinch, still deep in sleep. It was especially hard to move from under her. They did not move throughout the night, it seemed, Vanessa still woke up with a handful of Brooke and soft breaths against her neck.

If it wasn’t delivery day, she would honestly just not go to work and cuddle her some more.

So it was worrying her that she still hasn’t called, how could she sleep that much? Vanessa even decided to go back to the apartment before the rest of the shift to check on her if it’s still radio silent in the next hour.

Plus, she is already stressed about the delivery, a process still new to her in terms of food, so overall not good last two hours.

“Turn that frown upside down, Vanjie, it’s a wonderful day,” Monique tells her as she passes the bar carrying a tray of food.

Akeria then turns toward her, “Why are you frowning, babe? Don’t know how to fill in that safety form again?”

Vanessa lifts her head, smoothing out her expression, “It’s nothing, just concentrating.” She knows she’s lying to her friend but there’s no point in explaining because she’s probably overreacting. Brooke could be back home already, just forgot to call her. But that doesn’t make it better.

“Delivery for Vanessa Mateo,” a man with a medium-sized bouquet of purple/lavender coloured roses approaches the bar.

Akeria practically squeals like a teenager, looking at the flowers.

“That’s me,” Vanessa says, staring at the flowers in shock, lost. The delivery man hands her a paper to sign and she does it without even looking, still focused on the flowers.

When he hands her the flowers she’s almost afraid to take them, worried they might disappear that she’s perhaps hallucinating.

She’s been speechless and shocked to a point where she didn’t notice Akeria finding a vase and filing it with water, offering it to Vanessa who slowly put the flowers in.

“Brooke is growing on me more and more,” Akeria touches the petals, “these are beautiful, never seen such colour on roses.”

Vanessa notices a note attached and opens it, still completely out of it.

_You did movie tickets, I’ll do flowers, _

_but I hope they are better than my company last night. _

_Thank you for letting me sleep in <3_

_-B_

She feels heat spread from the centre of her back, all over her body, like a hug. Her heartbeat spikes, ringing in her ears. She reads the note again and then touches the flowers. All the stress that was there a minute ago just dissipated. Her body so relaxed, she feels like she could turn into jelly. Mind only running on Brooke.

Vanessa wants to call her, but waits for a second to gather herself, zooning back into the reality.

When Brooke answers after the third ring, Vanessa almost says three little words that she definitely shouldn’t say right now, but she thinks them and moves them back from the tip of her tongue.

“The flowers are beautiful but they will never be better than your company,” she says instead, grinning like crazy.

She hears Brooke exhale, “_I’m sorry I was mean to your movie…and for falling asleep on you.”_

Vanessa shakes her head, understanding the silence now, “It’s okay, I don’t take that to heart, it was quite funny actually, plus you weren’t wrong about it. Regarding the falling asleep, that was me working my magic. You needed sleep Mami, not sexy times, there’s plenty of time for that.”

“_Oh,_” there is a pause, “_still, sorry for the moodiness._”

“We all have bad days. I get you,” Vanessa smiles down at the flowers, stroking them again.

Brooke speaks up again, “_Thank you_.”

“You should definitely pop in today, though,” Vanessa says, smirking.

She hears a lovely laugh from the other end before Brooke says, _“I’ll see what I can do about that.” _

Vanessa lowers her head into the bouquet, inhaling the smell, to stop herself from giggling like a school girl. 

…

Sundays are officially Brooke’s favourite days. Remaining tingling sensations from the round three of the night were just leaving her body, her mind clearing and being pulled to sleep. Vanessa is still lying between Brooke’s legs, head on her stomach. Her eyes closed, body fully relaxed.

She moved her hand from Vanessa’s back to her hair, fingers lightly carding through.

“Hey baby,” she spoke quietly, events from today coming back to her.

Vanessa didn’t move, “Hm?”

“I want to talk to you about something,” her voice still quiet, but her mind gradually started to buzz with nervousness.

At that, she turned her head up and looked at Brooke. Her eyes soft, slightly unfocused from almost falling asleep. She couldn’t help but to run the back of her fingers over her cheek, down her chin.

Corner of her lips turned up a bit, “What do you want to talk about?”

It’s been in the back of her mind, hovering over her throughout the day and now it’s the only thing that rings in her head.

Vanessa seemed to take in Brooke’s expression, shifting so that her chin is resting on the hand that was on her stomach. Her eyes now fully focused on Brooke.

“So, today at work, they we were talking about the fundraiser gala night because we are supposed to attend and what not,” Vanessa nodded along and Brooke broke the eye contact before continuing, “and the nurse that works with me asked me if I’m bringing my girlfriend with me, to which I replied ‘no she works night shifts’ and that I’ll probably go with Nina and Monet.” Brooke’s let out a shallow breath, room completely silent.

Vanessa cocked her head, not saying anything for a beat, making Brooke’s heartbeat jump.

“You know I’m the owner of the bar, right? I can ask A’keria to switch with me if you want me to go,” she stopped speaking when Brooke turned beet red, covering her face, “what? Hey, I don’t understand.” She got up from her position and sat next to Brooke, removing her hands from her face. Brooke let her, face still pinkish.

“What did I say?”

Brooke sat up as well, “That was not the point of that story,” she looked at the Vanessa’s hand that was still holding hers.

Vanessa’s brow furrowed, then realization crossed her face, making her say a silent ‘Oh’.

“The girlfriend thing?” Brooke nodded, “Okay, I don’t see a problem in what you said,” Brooke briefly squeezed her hand. “Use your words, Mami, it’s just me.”

“It’s not a problem,” she scratched her forehead, “it’s just, I didn’t even think about it and I just answered but we didn’t even discuss it, but I couldn’t like backtrack and I don’t know, I don’t like to assume,” Vanessa stopped her by putting her a hand on her cheek.

“You’re rambling,” she smiled, “and look, we are talking about it now.” Brooke took her hand and tugged, Vanessa closed the distance and kissed her. She tried to break the kiss, but Brooke kissed her firmer, hand migrating in her hair. Vanessa shifted so that she’s, once again, on top of her.

They removed every inch of space between their bodies, Brooke’s fingers curling against Vanessa’s cheeks. She separated their lips far enough to speak, “are we in a relationship?”

Vanessa grinned and nudged her nose against Brooke’s, “I don’t know, you didn’t ask.” She kissed her again. Brooke moved one hand down her side and around her back to pull her impossibly closer.

“Neither did you,” she gasped when Vanessa started trailing kisses down her neck.

“Didn’t want to pressure you,” she said in between, “knew we were getting there,” she drifted down to her chest, placing a soft kiss over her heart, “was letting you set the pace.”

Brooke once again pulled her in a hard kiss, tangling her fingers in Vanessa’s hair and flipping them over. As their kisses turned filthier, Brooke’s touches went from soft to teasing. Just as her fingers were inching up Vanessa’s thighs, Vanessa grabbed her hand breaking their kiss.

She looked at her, confused, a phantom feeling of Vanessa’s lips still lingering.

“I’m waiting,” Vanessa’s eyes holding a mischievous glint.

Brooke looked down and chuckled, then met her eyes once again. She traced her finger along her jaw, moving her face closer to Vanessa’s. Once her finger reached her chin, she captured it with her thumb, looking straight into her eyes, “will you be my girlfriend?”. Her soft voice turning Vanessa’s cheeks pink. She started to nod, grinning like mad, “yes”, her voice equally soft.

Brooke captured her lips again.

…

Four days later, Vanessa is still flying high on happiness. It’s not like anything was different technically, but them finally being officially girlfriends is a big thing. Only thing that Vanessa noticed is that it opened the door to much more physical affection from Brooke. She was always touchy, especially liked touching her face, thighs and, well, ass, but now it was almost magnified and Vanessa was basically preening under the attention.

She was just leaving her office when she noticed Brooke sitting at the bar, talking to Kameron. A grin immediately appears on her face as she walks toward her.

“Hi,” Brooke mirrors her grin when she notices her then turns toward her on the bar stool so that Vanessa can walk in between her legs.

Vanessa leans in to kiss her, “I thought you were having lunch with Nina before we go.”

Brooke’s hand moves to Vanessa’s hip, rubbing it before settling, “I am, she went to get Monet, they wanted to do lunch here.”

“Oh,” Vanessa grins again, “even better.”

She turns slightly toward the bar and faces Kameron, frozen in spot, looking at them in shock.

“What?” Vanessa addresses her, Brooke also following her line of sight, then smirking at Kameron’s expression, “I can’t kiss my girlfriend at my bar?” her voice teasing.

Kameron’s jaw drops as well as the peanut bowl she was holding. All of a sudden, Monique pops into the conversation, voice high, “did I hear that right? She said girlfriend?”

It was amazing how quickly Monique got up to date with everything, clicking with everyone, she adapted so fast and turned out to be a wonderful addition to the bar.

“I think you did,” Kameron nods, still looking shocked, picking up the bowl she dropped.

Brooke and Vanessa both laugh. Vanessa leans more into Brooke when her hand moves to rub her lower back.

“I told y’all that my prayers will work! Me and Jesus are tight, he sent me here to bless this lovely union,” Monique says as she continues to make the drinks.

Vanessa face palms while Brooke just giggles.

“In that case, thank you Jesus,” Kameron raises her hands, “on a serious note though, I’m happy for you.”

“Glad we have your approval,” Brooke jokes.

Several moments later, Nina and Monet enter the bar, immediately spotting Brooke and coming over. Nina gives Vanessa a hug before she takes their order and leads them to a free table.

“You know I wouldn’t be offended if you ate somewhere else?” Vanessa comments as they sit down, because they were supposed to meet in the city centre since to shop for Vanessa’s dress for the fundraiser that was in three days.

Nina scoffs, “I know, but me and Brooke are supportive girlfriends so that’s a no. Just like I’d never go to someone else for legal advice.” Monet winking at her in response.

Vanessa chuckles, “That’s not the same, but okay.”

“Are you sure you’re not going to join us?” Monet asks.

“Yeah, I have less than an hour left of my shift, wanna help out the girls as much as I can,” she says making Monet and Nina pout but not protest, “I’ll see you in a bit.” And with a wink for Brooke, she leaves.

…

Vanessa felt nervous all day. She ended up going to shops with Silky again yesterday, because while it was extremely fun trying on things with Brooke, she hasn’t bought anything, not one dress was good enough even though Brooke was impressed with almost all she put on. Silky was right, Vanessa was overthinking it because she wanted to find a perfect dress thinking that it was important to look the best when Brooke literally introduces her to almost the whole hospital staff as her girlfriend.

Thankfully she beat some sense into her. Reminding her that most of these people know her already and that no dress could match how great she is just as Vanessa, so she needed to get over it and buy one she could eat in without ripping the seams. It made her go teary eyed in the fitting room.

Finally, she bought one she saw when they went shopping the first time, but didn’t try it at first. It was a long black strapless dress with a corset that made her boobs look ‘juicy’ as Silky stated and a high open leg cut.

After fussing around what jewellery to put on in front of the mirror, Vanessa decided on a simple pearl necklace and bracelet that her aunt bought her a long time ago. She sent a full body shot picture to the bar group chat because they kept nagging to see what she looked like. All of them showering her in praise, that many fire emojis have never been sent, even in between highschoolers, making Vanessa extremely happy that those are her friends.

Just as she sprayed her perfume, there was a knock on the door.

She straightened her dress one more time and checked her hair before she opened it.

The sight that she was met with made her glad she was still holding the door, otherwise she would definitely lose balance. Brooke is wearing a deep blue dress with longs sleeves and a deep V, almost to the middle of her stomach. Her hair was in a loose bun, and she never looked more beautiful.

“Holy shit,” left her mouth as she took her in.

Brooke nodded, taking a step forward, hands going to her waist, “My thoughts exactly.” Tension between them built immediately, Vanessa fully prepared to call it a night and spend it kissing her wonderfully red lips. Brooke’s right arm moves from her waist to her cheek, other settling on her ass, pulling her tighter and connecting their lips.

Vanessa’s hands move to Brooke’s arms, squeezing them at the intensity of the kiss. A gasped, “Mami,” almost swallowed by insistent, lips but Brooke pulls away an inch to pant.

“If you don’t stop, we ain’t going anywhere,” Vanessa says, voice still breathless.

Brooke nods, Vanessa feeling it against her forehead, then they separate. Brooke holds her out at arm’s length, looking at her once again, Vanessa doing the same.

“I can’t believe you’re my date.” Her eyes lift to look into Vanessa’s who immediately blushes.

“Also your girlfriend, which is even better,” she teases.

Brooke lets out a small weak sound, before wrapping her in a tight hug, her face lowering to her neck, Vanessa feeling her nose graze it as she inhales her.

They stand like that for a beat, then Brooke mummers “Okay, we can go,” and presses the barest kiss on her neck before pulling back.

…

They arrived a bit early, but thankfully there was a lot of people already there.

Brooke spotted Trixie and Katya at the bar, so they made a beeline toward them. Both of them greeting them excitedly as soon as they saw them.

“You both look good enough eat,” Trixie comments and Katya hums in agreement, adding “power couple realness.”

“Thank you,” they say at the same time, Vanessa complimenting them back, “you look great as well.” Trixie is wearing a bright pink suit with a white shirt and a small red scarf, while Katya is in a flowy red dress with a pink clutch.

“Love the very married couple colour coordination,” Brooke points at the scarf and the clutch.

Katya laughs, “Get in to it mama, we’re already practicing.”

Brooke was just about to ask Vanessa what she wants to drink when Trixie started waving, announcing that Nina and Monet arrived as well.

“Doesn’t everyone just look dashing,” Nina says as they step next to them.

Monet checks Vanessa out and says, “Damn, if I had seen you like this when we met, it would’ve been a Monjie show, sis you look amazing.” Vanessa giggles at that and notices how Brooke’s chest almost puffs out, hand on her hip moving up to her waist then back, which makes heat pool in stomach.

“Great thing to say in front of your current girlfriend,” Trixie shakes her head, laughing.

Nina scoffs, waving her hand, “Oh it doesn’t bother me, I get it.”

“I think it’s time we find our table,” Vanessa laughs and Katya agrees, “Yes, I have limited amount of time in these heels.”

Nina stops them, “No! We have to take pictures first,” and when everybody basically groans, she rolls her eyes, “come on, you know I’m not taking no for an answer. And, you’ll thank me!”

They all go toward the wall filled with flowers since it will serve as the prettiest background and after everyone gathers it will probably be impossible to take a picture there.

First, Vanessa takes a picture of Brooke, Nina, Trixie and Katya, while Monet teases them for the very professional stance they’re taking. Then they all rotate in taking couple pictures, which takes a lot longer than expected, then each of them alone. And since they discovered Vanessa takes great pictures, she had to play photographer for all of them, while they changed poses. The drama of it all.

“Okay, enough,” Brooke stops Nina and Monet, “our turn,” she holds out her phone to Nina. Vanessa forgot that they would take a picture as well. It just dawned on her that this will be their first picture together.

They stand next to each other, arms going around each other’s waist, Vanessa smiling in hopes that that way it won’t show her cheeks blushing.

“Seriously?” Monet speaks up with hand on her hip, “you interrupted us so you can do that white ass pose. Where’s the spice? C’mon this ain’t first day of kindergarten.”

Both of them burst out laughing, but Vanessa takes that challenge. She looks up at Brooke who is just waiting for her to make the move, soft smile on her face. So, Vanessa turns toward Brooke, stepping with her exposed leg slightly in between Brooke’s legs and places her hand just below her chest, feeling a slight twitch from Brooke from the touch. Brooke follows her lead and lowers her hand just above her ass, pulling her in more and places the other hand in the pocket of her dress. 

“Mhm, that’s hot,” Katya comments as she sips her drink and Brooke winks at her while Vanessa’s sultry expression breaks into smiling.

“Wait,” Brooke smirks and Vanessa is surprised when she feels the hand that was in the pocket move to her thigh to raise and hold it up, making Monet whistles at them. It makes them all laugh once again.

“There,” Nina offers Brooke her phone, and continues, “now that we’ve all been out staged by these two, I think it’s time to go sit.”

They are all placed at the same table along with Yvie, Scarlett and Alyssa. The nervousness Vanessa felt today is completely gone by now, especially since everyone is very relaxed and friendly.

Dinner starts really fast, thankfully, because she was starving. An easy conversation fills the table, mostly directed toward her since she is the newest addition to the group, in a way. She really enjoyed talking to Yvie and Scarlett. Yvie, she knew, from the bar of course, but this was the first time she’s introduced to her wife. They mostly talked about their new baby and Vanessa couldn’t stop gushing over the cute pictures.

And even though they are usually not in the same conversation, Brooke’s hand on her thigh was a constant presence which was absolutely lovely, only sometimes distracting when she’d move her hand or start drawing shapes.

…

Whenever there is a pause between an auction or a speech or a performance they would get up and mingle or go outside so that Brooke could smoke.

They were just about to go to the bar when they get approached by Rose.

“Hi honey, finally caught up to you,” she hugs Brooke briefly.

Brooke smiles at her, “hi Rose, yeah it’s been a busy night. Haven’t seen you at all.”

“I’ve been around, but there is so many people here, hard to talk to everybody,” she comments then her eyes settle on Vanessa, “is this your girl everyone’s been talking about?”

Vanessa feels warmth spread over her, and Brooke’s face lights up. She puts her arm around Vanessa’s back again and introduces her, “Ah yes, this is Vanessa, my girlfriend.”

Rose extends her hand and Vanessa takes it immediately, “Hi, I’m Rose, Brooke’s favorite nurse.”

“Hi, yes, I’m aware,” Vanessa chuckles, “nice to finally meet you.”

Rose smiles, “I could say the same, hoping I’d see the day,” she looks between them, “where did you guys meet?”

Brooke looks at Vanessa, sharing a small smile, “at her bar, I ranted, she listened, made me laugh and now she can’t get rid of me.”

“How sweet,” Rose coons, “is the one down the street, Lady in Red?”

Brooke nods, stroking Vanessa’s back while answering “yes.”

“Oh, I thought Maritza was the owner,” Rose pauses, “wait, are you her niece?”

“I am,” Vanessa says, “she retired and left the bar to me.”

“That great! Good for her. And you. Please say hi to her from me,” Rose touches Vanessa’s shoulder before she leaves with a goodbye, her friends calling her from the table.

Two of them then make their way to the table as well. Everybody scattered around the room, so they are the only one’s sitting. Brooke pushes her chair closer, her hand finding the way back to Vanessa’s exposed thigh.

“Are you having fun?” she asks her.

Vanessa tilts her head toward Brooke and moves her hand to rest it over Brooke’s, “Yes, are you?”

Brooke turns her hand around so that they can lace their fingers together, “I am. Really glad you came with me.”

“Anytime, Mami,” Vanessa moves to shortly kiss her cheek, Brooke leaning into it.

After a couple minutes, their alone time was interrupted, just as they were talking ideas about what they could prepare for lunch tomorrow. All of the others came back to the table, shifting the conversation on to everything they learned till now, basically gossiping. At least until Trixie mentioned wedding dresses, conversation now on their wedding.

…

They entered the apartment, Vanessa immediately running off to pee, she was holding it in for the entire walk back. Brooke chuckles at her small jumpy steps in heels, making her almost look like a bunny.

“You could’ve just taken your shoes off,” she comments after her and Vanessa yells back, “no time!” before slamming the door of the bathroom.

She takes her own heels, feeling the instant relief, and places them by the door. Also doesn’t bother going anywhere but the bedroom, taking slow steps while she takes off her jewellery, placing it on the bedside table, before sitting down on the bed.

It was such a wonderful night, so light and fun, almost passing in a magical daze. Having someone there with her turned out to be the best thing. Well, actually, Vanessa did spend a part of the evening pulled away by so many members of staff, everyone wanting to speak to her and catch up. Brooke knew that the bar was popular but it was always shocking to witness how many people Vanessa actually knew.

At one point, she was just leaning against the bar talking to Monet and Nina while Vanessa was enjoying multiple conversations. It was working in her favour in some way, because she got a wonderful full view of her looking absolutely stunning in her black dress, her exposed leg making it impossible to resist touching her thigh. Every once in a while they’d lock eyes and Vanessa will smile at her or wink and Brooke’s heart would do a little jump, making time stop for a moment.

She was also amused by the actual surprise on people’s faces when she’d introduce Vanessa as her girlfriend, something that was still strange to say, but at the same time, very right. It was so freeing, because she realized that declaring that term, that made her anxious before, didn’t actually change anything. They are still Brooke and Vanessa, everything between them untouched, no walls closing down on her, no pressure she was expecting. It is just acknowledged now, that this is her person. And she felt pride anytime she could say it.

While this was probably the most enjoyable fundraiser gala she’s been to, she was very happy when Vanessa turned around in her embrace to ask her if she’s good to leave.

“That was the longest pee of my life,” Vanessa enters the room again, startling Brooke only a little bit.

“Hah, I’m glad we made it in time then.” Brooke smiles at her.

Vanessa bends down to take her heels off, “What were you doing?” she asks taking in the scene. It definitely looked like Brooke was just there waiting for her.

“Nothing,” Brooke shrugs, following Vanessa’s movements as she also takes her jewellery off and places it back to their designated place.

They look at each other for a second, then Vanessa takes a step forward, so that she’s standing in between Brooke’s legs, looking down on her with a small smile. Brooke places her hands on Vanessa’s hips, taking her in one more time, “God, you look beautiful,” she slowly glides her hands down to her thighs while revelling in the soft redness that appears on Vanessa’s cheeks.

“So do you,” Vanessa replies shyly, tucking a fallen strand behind Brooke’s ear.

A beat passes, complete silence around them. Then Brooke squeezes her thighs, making Vanessa lean down, pressing their lips together. She places her exposed knee on the edge of the bed, but their dresses are too long, toppling Vanessa on Brooke, who lets them fall back.

Their kiss broken when Vanessa moves down Brooke’s throat, following the deep V line of her dress, prompting her head to fall back with a high sound. While she’s working on a bruise that’s definitely going to be over Brooke’s heart, Vanessa’s arms move behind her back to pull the zipper down. Brooke follows her lead and helps her out of her dress as well.

Brooke then wraps her arms around Vanessa and flips them, kissing her collarbone, then up to her neck, leaving tiny trail of bites that cause small whimpers to fall from Vanessa’s lips. Their lips meet again, heated kisses exchanged while their hands wander, charge between them building with every touch.

She slows it down, tries to separate their lips, but Vanessa follows her, head lifting from the mattress, reeling her back in. They keep kissing, Brooke, once again, getting lost in it until she grazes the path from her chest to her stomach with her nails, causing Vanessa to gasp, goosebumps raising under Brooke’s fingers.

Brooke then softly kisses her cheek before moving down her body, fingers catching on the lace of her lingerie. Her lips lightly touch the edge of them, Vanessa’s thighs bracketing her before her hips move up to help Brooke remove them.

She grips her thighs, opening her lips on the one that’s been taunting her the entire night, sinking her teeth in sharper than usual. Vanessa’s head tilts up, taking a shaky breath in while her hips roll forward which Brooke doesn’t ignore. She trails her lips down, satisfied by the small bite mark that is already forming.

When Brooke finally buries herself between her legs, Vanessa’s toes curl and she releases a small whine that makes Brooke hum low in her throat, dragging her fingertips down to her hips and pulling her even closer. She lathed her tongue over her entrance, prodding lower and deeper and Vanessa pushed her hips up for each prod, pulling at her hair, whimpering with each press of her tongue.

“Brooke,” she moans, grabbing her hand, making Brooke look up at her, continuing her ministrations. Vanessa moans again at the sight, her breathing already erratic. Brooke squeezes her hand, slowing her pace, but then Vanessa tugs on it.

She stops and moves up her body again, letting herself be pulled close, Vanessa drawing her in a kiss by the hand that was still in her hair.

This already feels much better, Brooke understanding why Vanessa interrupted her. The intimacy charging up the energy, that is always there when they’re close, to high levels, making Brooke dizzy with it. Tonight though, it feels like her heart might just burst anytime she looks at her.

After a short while, Vanessa starts squirming underneath her, prompting Brooke to move her hand back down between her legs, while keeping up the small kisses. She runs her middle finger in a one lazy circle over her entrance, breaking the kiss to look at her when she pushes it in, drawing a quiet gasp from Vanessa.

She keeps up the steady thrusts, then lightly kisses her cheek then nose, making Vanessa blush before locking eyes with her. She easily presses the second finger in, causing Vanessa to squeeze her upper arm and without breaking eye contact Brooke nudges her nose against Vanessa’s lightly pecking her lips in the process. She couldn’t stop studying Vanessa’s face for every reaction, her brain completely locked in on her. Vanessa just blushed more at first, as her thrusts got deeper while exchanging half-kisses.

At one point, though, beams of warmth pour from Vanessa’s eyes that start to get a small shimmer, making Brooke’s throat close up.

“Brooke I…” Vanessa whispers, voice shaky. She stops her by kissing her, hoping that maybe it will bring back air in her lungs. She then noses at her temple before pressing a kiss there and looks at her again, “Me too but,” voice stuck, bringing out a soft smile on Vanessa’s face that she barely sees because her vision gets blurry. Vanessa immediately pull her close, Brooke’s face mushed in her neck, squeezing her, “I know.” Suddenly feeling the absolute love surround them both.

Brooke never got completely lost in one person like tonight. But she’d be fine if she was never found again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii lovelies,   
This was supposed to go up yesterday as my Valentine's gift to you, but life caught up with me. I hope all of you had a wonderful day and that this February has been treating you nicely. 
> 
> Thank you all for continuing to read this story and leaving such nice comments, I appreciate it so much.   
This went on for too long, since I'm apparently incapable of writing shorter chapters.   
Hope you like it and tell me what you think! <3 <3

A cold shiver woke Vanessa up, goosebumps rising all over her body. She looks down and realizes that only a thin cover sheet is covering her from the hips down. A frown appears on her face, then she looks to the left and has to stop a giggle from escaping her lips.

Brooke is cocooned in the duvet, lying on her side, face smushed in the pillow, only her hand peeking out, holding Vanessa’s upper arm. Vanessa should’ve known by now that Brooke is a blanket hoger. 

She carefully moves, turning toward Brooke, making sure she doesn’t disturb her. Anytime she gets a chance to admire Brooke, she takes it. Especially in the quiet moments like this one.

As Brooke lets out small cute puffs, sleeping peacefully, Vanessa remembers last night. Her heart immediately starts to fill and expand, the bursting feeling coming back to her. For a moment there, Vanessa was sure her chest would just explode from the love that built up in her and the love she felt coming from Brooke. Not just last night, but for a while now.

It was not in her character to leave it unsaid, Vanessa easily telling people she loved that they were dear to her heart, but when it came to Brooke, she kept being left speechless.

It’s just on a whole other level now, very scary but also very secure.

Tears spring to her eyes when Brooke’s nose does an adorable little twitch and Vanessa is flooded with a wave of different memories. “I’m definitely in love with you,” she whispers, feeling a little pressure give out after voicing it, so she continues, “and I know you’re my lady in red, even though you’ve only worn red twice since I’ve known you. Maybe my lady in blue…,” Vanessa trails off, confused chuckle escaping her mouth. Still quietly but firmly she continues, “because I’d have you next to me any day. You could’ve never called me your girlfriend” she pauses, touching Brooke’s ring finger lightly, “and you can never call me your wife. Because the way you love me, Mami and how much I love you, this is already my happy ending,” she slowly exhales, no tears actually fall but she feels the release of emotions she wanted last night.

A car horn is heard in the distance and it makes Vanessa smile, it serves as a good replacement for Brooke’s response, because she can imagine the horns that would go off in her mind if she was actually awake when Vanessa laid all of this out.

So, since both of them are free today, and she finally said what she wanted, Vanessa decides to steal some more sleeping hours. Carefully, she lifts Brooke’s hand from hers, to make room for her to slide under her arm and into the warmth of the duvet.

Brooke lets out a hum when Vanessa makes full body contact with her, burying her face into her neck. Slowly, they move together to find the perfect position, until they are completely tangled. And Vanessa vas just about to fall asleep again, when Brooke’s hand moves to her hair, scratching her lightly before angling her head so that she can whisper, “Mornin’ baby,” in her ear.

“Noo, go back to sleep,” Vanessa whines in her neck, “more bed time.”

A deep chuckle, still affected by sleep, comes out of Brooke. Vanessa feeling it more than actually hearing it. “Are we sleeping the day off?”

“Yes,” she mumbles, then sighs, “no, we’ll do things…but later.”

Brooke traces her shoulder, “what kind of things?” and Vanessa knows that she’s just keeping her talking to wake her up.

“Pancakes, The Office, a bath and whatever else we want,” Vanessa rattles on.

She feels Brooke nod, “but what if I want pancakes now?” her breath tickling her cheek.

“Well, you’re gonna wait Mami,” Vanessa squeezes her impossibly closer, “I want at least 10 more minutes of this.”

“Okay,” Brooke chuckles, then starts tracing patterns on Vanessa’s back, lulling her back to sleep.

She feels a light kiss on the side of her head before Brooke whispers, “lets make it 15.”

…

Brooke checks her phone as she’s leaving the operating room, the surgery going on longer than expected and she hopes Vanessa hasn’t been waiting for too long. They have plans to go for lunch before Vanessa’s shift.

Luckily, it seems like Vanessa left home not too long ago, so she should be here any minute. As she’s walking toward her office to get her things, she opens their chat to ask her to meet her at the front.

Suddenly she feels hands squeeze her sides and a “Boo!” right in her ear, making her jump clutching her chest, “Holy shit”.

Brooke turns around and is faced with shit-eating grin on her girlfriends face.

“Baby, you almost gave me a heart attack,” she says, voice still breathy from the scare.

Vanessa giggles, taking the sides of her lab coat to pull her into a hug, looking up at her, “good thing we’re in a hospital, I’m sure they’d fix you right up.”

Her hands move to Vanessa’s cheeks, “Mhm,” she smiles before pressing their lips together.

Vanessa pulls back, moving out of her embrace but still holding on to her forearms, “Are we ready to go? ‘Cause I’m starving.”

Brooke smirks and pulls Vanessa against her again, whispering against her temple, “I have something you can eat.”

She feels Vanessa squeeze her arms, a small gasp leaving her lips, “absolutely filthy,” she looks at Brooke, eyes slightly glazed, “while you are a whole ass meal Mami, I need actual food.”

Then Vanessa studies her for a moment, chuckling a bit, “you’ve been in the mood a lot lately, did some planets like align or something?”

It was true, Brooke has been unable to keep her hands off of Vanessa since the fundraiser, completely addicted to the change in the air whenever they were close and how it crackles when they sleep together, forming a wonderful bubble of just love. If only she could let those words out, it would be even better. That night was a perfect opportunity but she interrupted Vanessa, feelings suffocating her in the best, but still very overwhelming, way. Though, Vanessa understood, leaving it unsaid but acknowledged, showing just how much she was deserving of hearing them.

Brooke raises her eyebrow, “are you complaining?”, teasing her.

“Never,” Vanessa raises up to peck her lips, not breaking eye contact, their lips breaking apart by both of them smiling, “just observing.”

Just as she was about to steal another light kiss, Vanessa stomach growls, both of them freezing before a giggle escapes Vanessa, “told you I’m hungry.”

Brooke places her hand over her stomach, “Sorry baby,” then rubs it lightly, “Just need to change and take my bag, I’ll be quick, promise.”

Thankfully they were almost right outside Brooke’s office anyway, so she quickly shed her coat, pulled her hair out of the bun and changed.

“That was fast,” Vanessa comments when Brooke steps out of her office, and she winks in response.

As they start walking, Brooke digs through her bag, pulling out a granola bar, “you like the strawberry ones right? I have one with honey if you want that,” she hands it to Vanessa who stares at it, slight amused frown on her face.

“We are about to have lunch,” she says, “I’ll be okay, you need those when you have a sugar crash.”

Brooke shakes her head, “Not right away. And if your stomach is growling it means it’s too late, so please take it,” she places the granola bar in Vanessa’s hand, “I also have a banana if you’d prefer that.”

Vanessa smiles then kisses her cheek, “granola is just fine, thank you.”

They make their way outside, Brooke guiding her by the hand on her lower back, while Vanessa munches on the bar. How fast she ate that granola, makes Brooke contemplate pulling out the other one and making her eat that as well. Her actions are stopped, though, by Katya exclaiming “Brooke!” and almost running towards her.

“Hey, everything alright?” Brooke greets her.

Katya sighs, “No. Please tell me you’re free. Trixie got pulled into a surgery and we’re supposed to go cake tasting in half an hour. I don’t know shit about cakes, I was only meant to be there to keep her company. Please go with me,” she clasps her hands.

“You want _me_ to pick the cake for _your_ wedding?” Brooke’s eyes widen, a shocked laugh leaving her.

Katya starts nodding, “Yes, please. Or at least help. I don’t want to make the wrong decision, plus I hate these kinds of things. Everybody just speaks to me in this mushy high voice and I _cannot_ handle that alone.”

“Why don’t you just reschedule? Also, Vanessa and I have plans,” which reminds Brooke to pull out the honey granola and hand it to Vanessa, who frowns at her, then when Brooke persist, she takes it.

“We can’t, the wedding is in three weeks and we already had to reschedule multiple times, Trixie is gonna have my head if we don’t have a cake chosen today,” she looks at her phone, “Uber is here in 2 minutes, c’mon.”

Brooke looks at Vanessa who shrugs, then at Katya, “this seems like something you don’t do with your co-worker.”

“What if I told you, you’re my maid of honour?” Katya rises her eyebrow.

Brooke rolls her eyes, “you’re not having maid of honours.”

“Now we are, and you can’t say no to me. It’s your duty,” Katya shrugs, proudly.

“I didn’t even say yes!” Brooke laughs, and Vanessa speaks up for the first time, softly, “Help her, we can have lunch some other time.”

Brooke opens her mouth, looking at Vanessa but is interrupted by Katya scoffing, “what do you mean? You’re going with us. Three minds are better than one, and this way I’m not ruining your plans.”

Just then the Uber arrives, Brooke looks at Vanessa, “but you’re hungry,” and Vanessa pushes her toward the car, “don’t worry, I’ll get something on the way.”

Brooke was about to protest when Katya turns around from the front seat, “I have a chicken salad, that I didn’t eat for lunch,” the proceeds to pull it out of her bag and thrust it toward Vanessa.

“Are you sure? I can totally get something on the way,” Vanessa looks at the salad in disbelief, Brooke mirroring her expression.

Katya places it on her lap, “Yeah, I need to be ready to eat cakes anyways,” she looks at her phone again, “it’s a 20-minute ride so you have time to eat it.”

Brooke is still adjusting to what is happening, because this was supposed to be a nice relaxing lunch with her girlfriend, not helping a stressed out Katya eat cakes and make decisions. She’s not a fan of impromptu happenings, nor sudden changes in plans

Though, Vanessa is already eating her salad, seemingly unbothered as she shifts so that she is more turned toward Brooke in the backseat.

“So how was your day?” Vanessa smiles at her before taking another bite. Brooke focuses in on her and leans back against the seat.

“Weird if I’m honest, there were a lot of unexpected things, guess it’s that kind of day” she sighs and starts retelling the entirety of her shift. The surgeries, the parents, the kids and the interactions with her colleagues. As Vanessa nods along, adding few quips here and there, Brooke feels her muscles relax and the messy day finally detangle in her mind. 

She just about finished and was about to ask Vanessa about her day, when Katya turns around again. Brooke honestly forgot she is even there, and by a little twitch Vanessa did, seems like she forgot as well.

“Damn, miss Brooke Lynn, you’re proper talking your girl’s ear off,” Brooke feels anxiety bubble in her chest at her words, then Katya addresses Vanessa, “does she at least tip you right?”

It is clearly intended as a harmless tease, but still, it makes Brooke pause. Questioning if she is endlessly drowning Vanessa in her thoughts and day happenings.

She doesn’t even get to spiral because Vanessa reaches over subtly, covering her hand which apparently closed in a fist.

“Nah, this is easy on me after what I have heard in my day,” she rubs Brooke’s hand lightly, making it open under hers, “plus, I like it. I love listening.”

Katya chuckles, “If you say so, I’m-“she’s interrupted by them arriving at the cake shop, “oh we’re here!” Then turns around to gather her things.

Brooke and Vanessa share a look, and Brooke once again has the urge to tell her that she loves her, but it is not the right time, so she settles on lifting their hands so she can kiss the back of Vanessa’s.

They enter the cake shop, and Brooke almost feels slapped with the sugary sweet smelling air. Just as the host went up to introduce herself, Vanessa’s phone rings.

“Shit, sorry,” she looks at her screen, then at all of them, “I gotta take this. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Katya and Brooke both nod, Vanessa throwing them a small apologetic smile before going outside once more.

“So, my name is Mary,” she offers her hand and Katya shakes it, “I’m guessing you’re here for the cake testing for the Mattel-Zamol- um, sorry, I’m not sure how to pronounce it,” Mary looks up from the clipboard, small blush on her cheeks.

Katya waves her hand, “nobody is, you’re okay. Yes, the pastry chef is called Katie, we spoke on the phone?”

Mary hums, relief evident on her face, “yup, everything is ready, just follow me.” She turns around on her heels and leads them down the room to the corner where two tables are put together with three chairs.

“Katie is in the back; I’ll tell her you’ve arrived. Should I bring one more chair for the miss that went outside?” Mary asks as Brooke and Katya sit down on the chairs that are right next to each other.

“Yes, please, she will be joining us,” Katya confirms and Mary leaves with a smile.

Brooke definitely feels weird and now understands what Katya meant with the mushy voice, she wonders is it like a requirement if you work in wedding planning. Though the cakes on the display look delicious and the whole interior design of the shop is very cute, definitely looks like something Trixie would find and support.

In a couple of moments Mary returns with a chair which she places on the right side, closer to Katya. A woman in a chef uniform follows right behind her.

“Good afternoon ladies, I’m Katie and which one of you is the lovely bride?” she introduces herself and Katya raises her hand to which Katie grins, “lovely, is Trixie joining us or have you switched brides?”

Brooke is almost amused by the cheesy humour and Katya just stays deadpan serious, “No, unfortunately, she was called into surgery. This is my friend Brooke,” she gestures at her and Brooke politely smiles.

“I thought I was the maid of honour,” she turns to Katya in faux offence and sees her deflate a bit at the light tease, she’s clearly taking this way too seriously than it is.

“My apologises, yes,” Katya says sarcastically, “this is my maid of honour,”

Katie smiles warmly at them and then seemingly takes Brooke in before speaking up again, “okay so, I’ll bring all the samples so you can try them and when you make a decision on the flavour we can discuss the decorations.”

“God, I have to pick the decorations as well,” Katya groans.

Brooke signs then turns to her, “look me in the eye and tell me that Trixie, your girlfriend of five years who you know very well, is not gonna love whatever you pick.”

Katya seems to mull over the words and there is a gradual clearing in her eyes, her expression relaxing. Her friend is not usually like this, so insecure in what’s happening that she’s actually stressed. Both her and Trixie are very clear on what they want 99% of the time, no matter how ridiculous it is, so having seen Katya like this, is very unusual.

“You’re right,” Katya states, nodding, “thank you.”

Brooke smiles, rubbing her shoulder, “no problem, that’s what maids of honour are for.”

Katya gives her stink eye, “you really not letting this go?”

“Nope,” she emphasizes the ‘p’, “good luck telling Trixie that she now also has to have a maid of honour.”

Then, Katie comes back, no longer in her chef’s uniform, followed by Mary, both of them carrying two large trays of small cakes samples, then placing it in front of two of them. Katie takes a seat on the left side of the table, closer to Brooke, which…okay, and Mary goes back and brings another tray.

“Okay, so here we have all the options, there are names and ingredients in front of each one, and-“ she points at the array of options when she’s interrupted by the front door opening, Vanessa coming back in and walking toward their table.

“Everything alright?” Katya beats Brooke in asking. Vanessa frowns at occupied chair next to Brooke than spots the free chair on the other side and makes her way there as she answers, “Yeah yeah, everything’s good.”

Brooke gives her a pointed look, wanting to make sure if everything is really alright. Vanessa just lightly nods and smiles, reassuring her.

“Katie, this is Vanessa, my friend,” Katya introduces them.

“The other maid of honour kind of friend or?” Katie jokes, which makes Brooke smile a bit, mostly at the thought of two of them ending up in that position.

Vanessa looks confusedly at them and Katya chuckles, “no, no, she’s a friend friend. Brooke here is the only newly proclaimed maid of honour.”

“Oh, well, then let’s start tasting the cakes, tell me which ones you like, if you can’t decide immediately, we can narrow the options as we go, or if you have something you specifically want, just let me know.” Katie says.

They dig in right away, starting with the chocolate options and small conversation ensues. From what kind of cake is it, what are the other wedding plans to how’s life generally. Brooke does notice that Katie is focusing her attention on her through most of it.

But as they progress through the cakes, she gets slightly touchy as well so Brooke is almost hundred percent sure she’s flirting with her. She keeps it very closed from her side, not sure how to make it stop without flat out addressing it, which she won’t do, it will make things real awkward real fast. Plus, there’s a possibility she’s just making it up in her head, maybe Katie is just very friendly.

“This one is not made with plain flour, right?” Brooke absentmindedly comments, munching on a piece, “is it almond?” she guesses, based on her experience with it.

Katie grins, leaning in, “yes. Another good observation. Are you a baker on the side or is your palate just that good?” she asks, a small smirk on her face.

Brooke doesn’t even know how to answer but turns out she doesn’t have to, because Vanessa speaks up, “Mami?”

“Yes baby?” she answers automatically. It results in her assumption being proven correct, because Katie looks between them, eyebrows shooting up and leans back in her chair, putting a lot more space between her and Brooke now.

“Smoke break?” she asks and Katya lightly snorts, pretending she’s focused on the ingredients of the cake in question.

“Sure,” Brooke says, unsure if she should be worried.

They both get up and make their way outside of the shop, leaving Katya to her own devices, but she got comfortable already anyway, Vanessa and Brooke barely having any purpose there.

“Everything okay?” Brooke asks, Vanessa clearly a bit agitated.

She pursues her lips nodding, then looks at Brooke, “that pastry chef annoyed me.”

“Oh, you noticed too” Brooke nervously laughs.

“Noticed? Bitch I almost threw a cake sample at her multiple times, she was not subtle,” Vanessa crosses her arms and Brooke’s stomach erupts in butterflies at the way her girl pouts like a kid.

She pulls Vanessa close by her hips, “That would’ve been funny,” she squeezes her, making Vanessa uncross her arms and rest them on Brooke’s, “but I was trying not to give her any reason to continue.”

“I know, but it didn’t stop her from shoving her cakes in your face,” Vanessa huffs and Brooke giggles at her unabashed possessiveness. 

“It was a good attempt, but the only cakes I’m interested are yours,” she smiles, enjoying the shyness that she pulls from Vanessa, “besides we both know I’m more of a buns kind a girl,” she emphasizes the continuing metaphor by running her hand over Vanessa’s ass, causing her to laugh into Brooke’s chest.

Vanessa stays in her embrace, Brooke’s arms moving around her shoulders, “sorry for overreacting,” she almost mumbles into her neck.

“Pf, you’re okay. I’d definitely aim a cake at her,” Brooke lowers her head, nosing at her temple, and whispers “also you getting jealous is kinda hot.”

Vanessa slaps her arm, “you know what,” she shakes her head, pointing her finger at Brooke, “you’re no better Mami.”

Brooke smirks and grabs her head, “mhm, sure,” teasing her before pecking her lips, “we better get inside before Katya decides on an impulse that they need a carrot cake or something for their wedding.”

Vanessa laughs but follows her inside.

First thing they both notice is that Katie is now sitting where Vanessa was and it makes Brooke’s lip quirk up but she schools her expression. Brooke sits next to Katya and Vanessa now sits next to her.

Katya tells them that she’s chosen two cakes, an oreo type one and spiked red velvet, and that they have moved to discussing the design. It turns out this wasn’t that bad at all, Brooke actually found herself having a nice time.

…

Vanessa is rummaging through her makeup bag, trying to find the lipstick she wanted to put on, getting frustrated by the second. She was already second-guessing her outfit, a tight leopard print dress she bought ages ago and has worn it once since. The girls told her it was perfect, but she still wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for the restaurant they’re going to.

She could also be nervous because this is actually the first time her and Brooke are going out for dinner, like a proper date kind of thing. Brooke was genuinely surprised when Vanessa brought up Valentine’s Day, saying she completely forgot about the concept of it but if Vanessa wants them to do something she wouldn’t mind.

Vanessa hasn’t taken that as an offence, she as well almost forgot, since she hasn’t celebrated Valentine’s Day for at least three years. Even though she was in a relationship, Aquaria had been in town for only their first two.

But then, the next day, Brooke sent her a link to a restaurant’s website, asking her if she could make reservation’s there. And it is one of those real nice places, where she also didn’t frequent since Aquaria, who, at the time, would buy or bring Vanessa outfits or dresses to wear and she regrets now sending it all back to her after the break up. Her style definitely wasn’t the fancy or ‘proper’ clothes, outside of her street style stich there were only going out outfits, not really suitable for a dinner date in a posh-ish area.

She finally finds the rouge lipstick and quickly applies it, then does another full body check. To avoid possibly changing again, she puts on her coat and goes outside. Brooke is about to arrive any moment so it’s more convenient this way as well.

Her timing is apparently perfect, because she wasn’t out more than two minutes when Brooke pulls up.

“Hi” Vanessa greets her when she opens the door.

Brooke’s stares at her wide eyed, “Hi. You didn’t have to wait outside; I would’ve texted you or come up.”

“I didn’t wait long, and I was already ready, so might as well,” Vanessa shrugs and puts the seatbelt on.

When Brooke doesn’t say anything or start driving, Vanessa looks at her, a small amused frown forming on her forehead, “What?”

“You look stunning.”

Vanessa feels the immediate rush of heat to her cheeks at the words, “thank you, so do you.” She would kiss her, but it will ruin both of their lipsticks so she just opts on taking her hand when Brooke starts driving.

It does take them a while to get there and Vanessa understands how posh it actually is when she sees the exterior of the building and that there is valet parking. She really should’ve paid attention to what Brooke sent her, but she trusted her to choose so she just automatically said yes. At least now she doesn’t feel overdressed.

Brooke hands over the keys and walks over to Vanessa, who has to stop herself from tracing the lines of her body in that tight black, backless dress. Thankfully, Brooke laces her hands and leads her inside.

“Good evening, do you have a reservation?” the hostess greets them at the entrance.

“Yes, Hytes for two,” Brooke answers while Vanessa is just distracted by everything around her.

It takes the hostess a second to find them on the list, then she leads them to their table which is situated on the terrace that looks like it’s straight out of a fairy tale.

“Where did you find this place?” Vanessa ask as they sit down.

Brooke hands Vanessa one of the menus, “Nina recommended it. Seemed like a good place to go for Valentine’s Day.”

Vanessa nods and opens the menu. The prices of the meals cause her eyes to bulge out a bit, this is the first time she’ll actually feel the dent in her wallet. She has to stop herself from laughing at the fact that it _just_ occurred to her that Brooke makes a lot of money.

The waiter comes after a moment, and Vanessa lets Brooke take the lead in ordering wine for the table because she is familiar with those she orders for the bar drinking but not these fancy-good-with-specific-food kind of wines.

They engage in a short small talk until the waiter comes back with the wine and they place their food orders.

“I still can’t believe that you and Nina share a car, why don’t you buy your own?” Vanessa comments, enjoying the soft little touches on her hand, Brooke lightly playing with her fingers on the table.

“I had a car back in Seattle, both of us did, but we almost never used both of them. So it seemed silly to have two cars again. If Nina didn’t buy one right away, then I would, so we would use mine,” Brooke shrugs.

Vanessa chuckles, “I guess that true. Even if she moves you can just go and buy one.”

“Are we heading into a ‘financial stability’ conversation on Valentine’s Day?” Brooke tilts her head, “I don’t mind, just asking.”

“No, sorry,” Vanessa shakes her head, “it just dawned on me that you probably make half of my yearly pay in one month. Never thought about it before.”

Brooke shifts in her seat, Vanessa can tell that she’s unsure, even her fingers stop their ministration on her hand.

“Probably yes,” she pauses, “is that a problem?” worry clear in her eyes.

Vanessa covers her hand now, “Of course not. I’m just saying why the conversation went in this direction.”

It really isn’t a problem, it’s more impressive that on the first glance Brooke doesn’t seem like someone who makes around 400k a year.

Brooke visibly relaxes and goes back to playing with her hand.

“Anyway, so what are you gonna do when Nina divorces you,” Vanessa asks, pulling a smile from Brooke with the small tease.

“Stay in the apartment we have now, or buy myself a house, depends on my mood,” Brooke says.

Vanessa rises her eyebrow, “what if Nina wants the apartment?”

“Nina is gonna move in with Monet. Side note, Monet has been hinting it lately so I’m just waiting for that conversation to happen,” Brooke chuckles, “So, since she is moving in with her, it’ll probably be in a new apartment because Monet doesn’t really like ours.”

“Makes sense, they’ve been together for a year and a half now,” Vanessa says.

Brooke rests her head on her hand, “Is that the time mark for moving in together?” And that makes Vanessa slightly panic, not wanting Brooke to think she’s alluding to something.

“I mean, no, it’s just that’s like a usual time or more like an okay time to bring it up,” she hears herself ramble but she notices the completely unbothered Brooke with a slight quirk in her lip and realizes she’s over explaining for no reason.

“Okay,” Brooke moves her fingers upwards, then dragging them down her forearm, “but how about we talk about something more interesting and suitable for this made up holiday?”

Vanessa feels goosebumps rise on her arm, “like what?” her voice coming out just a touch breathy.

“Like, what did you do today?” to which Vanessa lets out a giggle, and Brooke smiles, “What? We haven’t had the chance to talk during the day,” her left shoulder raises and drops.

With that, Vanessa starts updating her on what she did, only having two interesting customer stories to tell. She does mention that now that they serve food she noticed an increase in dates at the bar and some were already having theirs when she was finishing up her shift.

In the meantime, waiter does bring their food and they dig in immediately. For a couple of minutes, it’s just comfortable silence. They try each other’s food and comment on it, their legs are tangled under the table and Vanessa is having a wonderful time.

“Are you still the maid of honour to Katya?” Vanessa asks when they mention the wedding.

Brooke snickers, “yeah I guess I am. Trixie barged into my office today and said that her childhood friend heard what Katya did and now they’re definitely having maids of honour and in retaliation we both have to hold speeches and she demands praise and for guests to cry.”

Vanessa’s eyes widen, “you’re gonna hold a speech? Also wait, does that mean we’re sitting with them?”

“Unfortunately yes, because I have no clue what to say,” Brooke scratches her forehead, “I’m not much of a public speaker. And yeah, I think so? I’ll ask them.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Vanessa takes her hand again, “as long as you speak from the heart it should be fine. Don’t worry about making guests cry, it’s a wedding, everyone is mushy, you can just say that they love each other and at least 5 people will shed a tear.”

That makes Brooke laugh and squeeze her hand, “you’re probably right,”

Just then the waiter comes back, “was everything alright?” he asks and points at the empty plates. Both of them nod and smile immediately, “yes thank you,” Brooke says.

“Can I interest you in the desserts menu?” he asks while picking up the plates.

Vanessa is about to say yes, but Brooke beats her to it with, “no, that’s alright, just the bill, please.”

Waiter nods and leaves them again.

“I kinda wanted dessert,” Vanessa pouts and Brooke just smiles, “well I was thinking we could go to this ice cream shop that has vanilla ice cream with chunks of brownies in it that I haven’t had in a while but it’s very good. And maybe we could take a walk or something?”

“You really thought this through, Mami, fully romancing me here on this day,” Vanessa’s lips spread into a grin and she once again has to bite her tongue to keep those three little words in. 

Brooke’s cheeks get a soft rosy colour, “good, so I _am_ doing this right.”

“Yes,” Vanessa nods, still grinning, “very right.” Then the waiter comes back again, breaking their moment a little, and they both reach for their bags.

When Brooke sees Vanessa pull out her wallet, she reaches over and pushes it down, “Nah-a, don’t you dare,” and hands the waiter her card, and Vanessa pouts, “I took you out, I’m paying.”

“Then I’m paying for dessert,” Vanessa states and puts her wallet back.

Brooke accepts her card back and places it back in her wallet, “I’ll think about it.”

Vanessa scoffs and Brooke gets up, rounding the table and offering her hand to Vanessa, “Shall we?” It makes her giggle but she takes Brooke’s hand and gets up.

They make their way out, the car already ready for them. The ice cream shop is only a street away and somehow the universe decided to be kind because they found a parking spot nearby.

Both of them take the vanilla ice cream with brownies and Brooke does let Vanessa pay for it, but only after Vanessa threatens her. The street this shop is on is also very nice, especially since there is a park on one side. They don’t go through the park, but walk along it with arms linked, while enjoying their dessert.

Vanessa remembers a story with Silky, once when they were tipsy bordering on drunk and out and about, night ending with Silky trying to seduce a man by eating strawberry ice cream, the whole thing every bit looking like a crime scene. So, she retells it to Brooke, pleased with herself when she pulls almost a honked laugh from her.

When they finish their ice creams, they circle around to walk back to the car. Halfway there, Brooke stops them.

“I saw this when we were walking, and this is a perfect spot for a picture.” One of the shops had a really pretty window display and Vanessa has seen it too, but didn’t feel like stopping to take a picture of it.

“Okay,” she opens her hand, waiting for Brooke to give her the phone but Brooke just laughs shortly, “No, I meant I wanted to take a picture of you, but you can take one of me as well.”

Vanessa is very flattered but she’d prefer having a picture with her, rather than a full body shot of herself, “How about we take one together?” she suggests.

“Oh, yeah, that’s even better,” Brooke walks behind her, Vanessa almost preens at Brooke forgetting the concept of selfies for a moment and she chooses to believe it’s because she just looks so damn good tonight.

They take a few with Brooke behind her, Vanessa stretching as much as she can so they both nicely fit in the frame and that it’s the right angle.

“Maybe I should just pick you up, your arms are simply not long enough baby,” Brooke teases her and Vanessa’s jaw drops, instantly slapping her arm.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have worn the highest heels you own,” Vanessa huffs, even though Brooke should definitely always wear those heels because her legs look wonderfully long and defined, but she’s not about to admit that.

Brooke tickles her, Vanessa instantly squirming against her, “I’m just joking, your arms are appropriate size…for someone of your height.”

Vanessa is about to turn around to face her and let her have it, but Brooke doesn’t let up, tickling her once again and kissing her cheek. Her arms were long enough to capture that, though.

They quickly glance at the taken photos, both pleased at the result and Vanessa sends them to her immediately.

“I’m really glad I walked into your bar on whatever that day was in October,” Brooke says quietly, touching Vanessa’s hair, moving it back. It makes her pulse double in speed, blood rushing to her ears.

Without thinking, she says, “7th of October.” 

Brooke blinks, “You remember the date?” voice turning soft and she moves closer to Vanessa, placing her hands on her shoulder blades. And she circles her arms around Brooke’s waist.

“Yeah,” her voice stutters, but she continues, “my birthday was on that weekend, it was my first working day. Monday 7th of October,” she states again, memories of that day clear as day, just like all of the others.

“Should we consider that our anniversary date or when we made it official?” Brooke asks, and Vanessa could actually pass out from the fact that Brooke is talking about anniversaries and her voice is so loving that she really needs to focus on being an active respondent in this conversation. 

“I like that one.”

Brooke smiles, eyes practically sparkling, “Me too, and I considered you mine long before actually saying it.”

Vanessa barely manages to say, “I did too,” before Brooke is capturing her lips. The kiss is very public appropriate but sweet nonetheless.

When they separate, looking into at each other but still close enough that their lips are almost touching, Brooke says, “In that case, happy four months and a week.”

To make sure she doesn’t cry like a baby, Vanessa moves her arms from Brooke’s waist to around her neck, pulling her into another kiss.

…

_March 6th _

Brooke has been awake since 8am and hasn’t had a minute alone since. It is the day of the Trixie and Katya’s wedding. Her and Kim were invited, or more like forced, to come early in to get their makeup, hair and nails done along with the brides, but of course in separate rooms. So, Brooke spent her whole morning with Katya and it has been quite eventful. She kept obsessing over small details and Brooke had to either reign in the crazy or just let her do her own thing.

Katya wanted her to tell her what she’s going to say in her speech, but Brooke didn’t break and kept it to herself. Just because she still finds it underwhelming and probably not good at all, cursing herself for getting into this situation. Vanessa even offered to help twice, but Brooke refused, hoping that her words from weeks ago stay true, and that the overall wedding fever is going to make it sound better than it is.

Besides that, everything was going smoothly, with just a few bumps in the road which Trixie handled like champ. The wedding venue looks beautiful, it is a smaller one, since they decided on having only close family and friends, so that everyone can really mingle and have fun. She does find it amusing that the venue is literally at a beach and both of them did not want a beach wedding. Instead they set it up inside, venue apparently had requests like that before so it was not an issue.

Now, Katya was putting her dress on while Brooke listened to the increasing noise from outside, guests clearly gathering.

“Can you zip me up?” Katya asks and Brooke gets up from the sofa to help her.

She is wearing a beautiful red dress, synched at the waist, double layered with long sleeves open along the arm, looking like little capes. The cut of it a nod to the Russian gowns, which really brought up something in Katya, making her look just right.

Apparently Brooke was staring a bit too long at her friend because Katya points at her, “hey don’t _you_ dare cry on me, mama. I thought I could trust you to not get mushy on me here.”

Brooke chuckles, “I’m not gonna cry. You just look really beautiful,”

Katya tilts her head, putting her hands on her hips, “Thank you, I know,” then grinning ear to ear.

A short knock on the door pulls their attention, then Vanessa opens the door.

“Hi, I was told I could find you here,” she smiles entering the room, closing the door behind her. Even though Brooke already knew what she would wear, that didn’t stop her from, once again, being surprised how gorgeous her girlfriend is. She is wearing a deep green cami midi slip dress that laces up back. “Also, that you’re on in 5,” she continues.

Katya nods, checking herself in the mirror once more, while Vanessa walks over to Brooke.

“You look great,” she compliments Brooke who is in a pale turquoise dress with a shoulder detail and a long leather belt.

At that Katya whips around, “Nothing for me, huh?”

“Like you don’t know you look beautiful,” Vanessa chuckles, making Katya huff, “I do, but that shouldn’t stop you for saying it.”

Brooke was about to say something when there is another knock on the door, their wedding organization’s head popping in.

“Are we ready to get hitched?” a huge grin on her face.

Katya walks toward her instantly, answering “yes we are,” a trace of pride in her voice.

Vanessa and Brooke follow right behind her, all the way down the huge staircase to the entrance of the room where the wedding will be held. Brooke peeks in and sees every chair filled with guests, all of them chatting away while they wait for the wedding to start.

“I’m gonna take a seat,” Vanessa says to them, “I’ll see you out there,” sending a small air kiss to Brooke, who returns it immediately, before turning on her heels and leaving them.

Katya looks at Brooke with almost an annoyingly knowing smile and says, “Love looks really good on you.”

Maybe there is such thing as a wedding fever because her immediate response is not to roll her eyes but to simply smile and say, “Thank you, I know,” repeating Katya’s words from moments ago.

Katya seems like she wants to say something but Brooke interrupts her, because just then Trixie walks in with Kim by her side, wearing a white dress that almost looks like it’s made of snow, fitting her just right, making her look practically doll like. “And your love just arrived,” she says and points behind Katya.

She walks over to Trixie right away, meeting her in the middle of the hallway. Brooke is glad she can’t hear what they’re saying, even though it doesn’t look like they are exchanging a lot of words. But it is evident they know and share the same feeling, that little encounter almost too intimate to watch but too heart-warming to look away.

Finally, the music sounds and it’s their cue to go.

Kim walks out first, then Brooke waits a few beats and follows her. Immediately, she spots Vanessa in the crowd, who is already watching her with a grin, and focuses on her as she walks the aisle to her spot.

Then Katya and Trixie enter, arms linked, each of them carrying a small bouquet; Trixie with red roses and Katya with white. Brooke has to stop a chuckle at the colour coordination. When they reach them, the music stops and everyone sits down.

“Welcome family, friends and loved ones. We are gathered today to celebrate the union of Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova. We are all here to support this commitment of love and to share the joy of Trixie and Katya as they choose to spend their lives together,” the wedding officiator speaks and Brooke is mostly impressed by how she easily pronounced Katya’s last name.

…

Vanessa is not gonna lie, she was trying to stop the waterworks during the ceremony, but a few of those pesky little tears escaped. What can she say, she’s a sucker for love and happy endings.

Then she almost started crying again when they had their first dance, their figures meshing into a swirl of white and red.

But now she is focused on rubbing Brooke’s leg, knowing that she’s feeling nervous about giving a speech and Kim is already saying “Cheers,” indicating that it’s her turn now.

She briefly squeezes Vanessa’s hand before she gets up, Kim handing her the mic.

“I’ve known Katya and Trixie for about four years now, but had the privilege of working with them in the last two. I have only heard stories of how Katya was before, but have seen enough to know that she doesn’t know nor plan what’s going to happen to her day in day out. Most decisions made on pure impulse. Completely unpredictable and wonderfully crazy,” she speaks, Vanessa hearing a small shakiness in her voice but otherwise to everyone else she should seem perfectly relaxed, “but in spite of all of that, I know that she planned, or I guess still plans, on having Trixie by her side. Their relationship is one to admire, because I have never seen two people so vastly different but fit together more perfectly. It showed me that as long as you love someone and appreciate the love someone has for you, wonderful things will happen and everything else becomes a little less scary and a lot more fun,” Brooke smiles and rises her glass up, but Vanessa can barely see her from the tears in her eyes. She mentally pats the past Vanessa on back for remembering to put on waterproof mascara.

“To Trixie and Katya, may your married life be an even bigger adventure,” she finishes, everyone else cheering as well. Vanessa really loved her speech, because it wasn’t a loaded poetic script but very sweet and very Brooke, and she wanted to crawl into her lap as soon as she sat down and kiss her silly.

“You did great, Mami” Vanessa whispers in her ear instead and Brooke exhales a calming breath while sliding her hand on her thigh, “thank you.”

And everything else is pretty standard for a wedding. The food is amazing and it’s nicely paced so that there is plenty of time in between to dance and talk. After getting three drinks into Brooke, her finally relaxing, she happily accompanies them at the dance floor each time.

They mostly stay in a big circle and dance together but every now and then Brooke grabs Vanessa and just twirls her around, focusing all her attention on her. During one of the ballads, they get a bit lost in each other, exchanging a few kisses that earn them wolf whistles from their friends, causing them both to blush and break apart.

When it comes the time to throw the bouquets, something Vanessa hasn’t really expected them to do, but complies nonetheless and walks out on the dancefloor making Brooke go as well, leading her by hand.

“I always find this so silly, especially since people take it _so_ seriously, like your partner won’t propose to you just because you leaped to catch the bouquet, Karen,” Brooke complains, as they find a corner spot to stand.

Vanessa laughs at her annoyance and Brooke continues, “at least there is no garter taking with lesbians. I mean seriously, you’re basically going down on your wife in front of your parents to take a part of her underwear of. All to determine who’s getting married next? Ridiculous,” she crosses her arms and huffs.

“It is weird when you put it like that,” Vanessa says, but just takes it as a one of the Brooke Lynn Hates things and shrugs, “though I quite enjoy those silly little traditions in weddings, makes them more fun. Plus, if a catfight happens over the bouquet, it is 100% worth it.”

Brooke chuckles, “good thing there are two here, then.”

All the unmarried women finally gather, Katya and Trixie taking their positions in the front centre. The band starts playing a suspenseful melody and they both look over their shoulders, “Are we ready?” Trixie speaks and everyone cheers.

“One, two,” they swing their hands, “three,” then throw the bouquets.

Katya has obviously aimed at Brooke and it makes Vanessa laugh, especially since Brooke sees what’s about to happen and takes an easy step to the left, making the small white bouquet hit Nina right in the face.

Everybody claps but Brooke and Vanessa, who snicker at the shocked expression on Nina’s face and the delight on Monet’s.

…

The night is slowly calming down, only ballads playing by now and they are having a nice conversation at the table that Brooke is barely listening to. Feeling pleasantly sore from dancing but also very tired of the emotionally loaded day.

“Trixie was seriously considering at one point to hire you to do the drinks at the bar, couldn’t believe my ears,” Katya laughs, addressing Vanessa who’s jaw drops.

“Hey, I have yet to drink a better cocktail than yours. I wanted perfection for our wedding,” Trixie says, unbothered, “but it’s not like I was actually go through with it now that Brooke has decided to date you and bring you here as a plus one.”

Vanessa laughs, and it vibrates over Brooke, because she’s leaning against her side, “I think this works out better for me, but I’d be happy to whip up two drinks right now if you feel like that’s what this wedding is missing.”

Trixie looks like she’s actually accept the offer, but Katya speaks up, “absolutely not. you’ve done enough for this union.” And they all chuckle.

Brooke takes this opportunity to softly whisper, “Take a walk with me?” to Vanessa. She looks at Brooke, searching for something in her eyes but nods eventually.

Nobody at the table says anything when they decide to leave, but Brooke catches Nina wiggling her eyebrows and she waves her hand at her, quietly chuckling.

They go out back, to walk along the beach. And the instant silence, apart from the sound of the ocean, envelops Brooke like a hug. Vanessa moves her hand down their linked arms to take her hand, intertwining their fingers.

“You okay?” she asks her as they stroll down the path.

Brooke nods, “yes, wanted a moment for ourselves,” to which Vanessa squeezes her hand then nods as well.

They continue walking in silence while Brooke’s mind just keeps sorting her thoughts that swirl around her head. She is mulling through the events of today and the feelings she had, letting them settle.

Her thoughts interrupted when Vanessa gasps, “Look!” and lets go of Brooke’s hand to walk over to small collection of sea shells. But Brooke stays rooted in place as she watches her crouch down to examine the shells.

“Somebody is probably upset for forgetting them,” she picks through them, “they are so pretty.”

There is an innocent, genuine fascination in her face as she shows off the shells, and Brooke has never loved anyone more. It doesn’t hit her like a train anymore, that thought, it makes her feel like she gets forcefully pulled underwater, lungs expanding, begging to exhale, knowing that the only way to survive is to just to say them.

And today, Brooke doesn’t have it in her to fight the pressure.

“Vanessa,” she says making her taking her eyes off the shells, “Yeah?”, and Brooke continues, “I love you.”

There is a moment where she feels like time completely stopped, her own words settling over her, but then again, she still cannot breathe, not until Vanessa says it back.

What she doesn’t expect is Vanessa falling on her butt from her crouch, face stunned.

Brooke rushes to her, helping her up, immediately dusting off the sand from her dress. Vanessa still holds on to her forearm, staring at her.

“What did you say?” she asks, her voice barely there, almost like she didn’t plan on speaking.

Brooke squeezes her arm, looking her in the eyes, “That I love you,” she touches her cheek briefly, “I love you so much.”

Vanessa is still stunned for a second, then tears spring in her eyes and she throws herself at Brooke, pulling her into a tight hug. “Oh my God,” she says against her head, her arms tighten around Brooke’s neck, “Is this a ‘make Vanessa’ cry day?”

Brooke chuckles at that, moving her hand up and down her back when she hears small sniffles.

Vanessa then pulls back a bit, enough to face her, “I love you too,” she says, bumping her nose against Brooke’s, “almost too much.”

Brooke barely lets her finish, closing the gap between their lips. Almost instantly it’s like Vanessa gave her the air she needed, so she can breathe again. And the pressure stops, everything around her calms. They exchange some more soft kisses, before Brooke breaks them apart, kissing her cheek then her temple.

Then she remembers the sea shells and that it would be nice to keep one for the memory, so she crouches down and takes the one that Vanessa was holding before.

“Okay that’s enough,” Vanessa exclaims, tears back in her eyes, “do you want me to have a heart attack?” She almost yells at Brooke, when she puts the shell in her bag.

“What?” Brooke smiles innocently.

Vanessa pulls her by the hand, in the direction of the venue, “you are going to walk Mami, pick up your stuff, and take me home, that’s what,” she rants as they walk, “before my heart gives out right here.”

Brooke laughs, delighted by her antics, but tugs on her hand to stop her and pull her back towards her, “Okay, but I can’t promise anything when we get home.”

Vanessa’s cheeks blush, “You-“ , but she doesn’t get to finish because Brooke kisses her again, enjoying how she melts right into her with a soft touch on her neck and a hand dangerously low on her back.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies!! It’s been a long long time :(
> 
> My uni has been quite literally beating the shit out of me and as much as I wished I couldn’t continue with the updates. I was deciding between multiple choices on how to update this story but this felt right in my heart so I hope this last chapter finds you well and brings you any happiness during these questionable times in the world. 
> 
> I wish you all health, happiness and love. 
> 
> Happy reading! <3

_Three years later. _

“I’m so sorry, they just would not finish the log for today,” Brooke immediately starts rambling as she approaches Vanessa, “are they already here?” she looks toward the restaurant and just keeps walking until a hand on her forearm pulls her back.

Brooke stops and turns to Vanessa who just giggles at her confused face.

“Hi Mami,” Vanessa takes a step toward her and continues with a pointed tone, “you look stunning as ever,” easing her hold on Brooke’s forearm, letting her hand slip down.

It takes her a millisecond to understand, enough to catch Vanessa’s hand, intertwining their fingers, and pull her closer.

“Hi to you too,” she leans down to softly peck her lips, “sorry, I hate being late.”

Vanessa nods, their noses almost grazing, “I know, but I hate not having your attention first,” she says making both of them laugh.

“You always look beautiful,” Brooke responds to her remark, touching her now long wavy strand of hair.

“Great,” she smirks, “now we can enter, and yes they have already arrived” making Brooke shake her head as they walk toward the restaurant.

As Brooke tells the hostess their reservation name, Vanessa notices Monet and Nina already waving excitedly. Thankfully, the hostess leads them to the table soon after.

While they are approaching them, Vanessa sees that the honeymoon glow is still present between them, probably because they’ve came back last night. They were in Greece for two weeks, went immediately after the wedding, which was a proper party, unlike Katya and Trixie’s. It had all the clichés, a whole bunch of people, so much food and alcohol, and they partied so much Vanessa actually had to take a day off the next day. Of course, she was also busy the whole day because Brooke was, once again, the maid of honour, but in Nina’s words ‘for real now’. What that implied was a whole lot of responsibility and involvement that Brooke did not expect but pushed through for her best friend, though she dragged Vanessa in for most of it, and she was honestly happy to help.

“Hello wifes,” Brooke greets them with a grin, both of them going in to exchange short hugs with Nina and Monet.

“Hi to you too, have you missed us?” Monet teases as they move to sit down.

Vanessa places a hand over her heart, “not a day went by,” and sighs as she sits in the chair Brooke pulled out for her.

“Well despite you being mean, we have ordered champagne to celebrate, we hope we are still the first!” Nina beams looking at both of them while Monet nods.

Vanessa feels Brooke go stiff next to her, turning her gaze because she was confused at what they were celebrating.

“I didn’t know returning from honeymoon requires a celebration,” Brooke stares at Nina, forcing out a laugh that was far from genuine. Vanessa can tell she’s panicking, even though her expression is fully controlled.

The stare off between Nina and Brooke probably lasted only a couple of seconds, but it still made the mood around them shift. When Monet looks between all of them and starts, “I thought…,” she is immediately cut off by Nina who is still looking at Brooke, “Yes it’s a new lesbian rule, didn’t you hear, you have to celebrate the honeymoon too.”

Monet seems to realize something that Vanessa still hasn’t grasped and it makes her frown.

“Yeah, we were told that in Greece,” Monet shrugs, chuckling, but lacking the actual humour, sounding more nervous.

Nina nods and shortly looking at Vanessa then focusing on Monet.

Vanessa can feel Brooke relaxing, “I think you were misinformed, but since there’s alcohol involved, I can get behind that rule,” she places a hand on her thigh as she laughs, this time more genuine.

She decides to ignore whatever just happened, trusting that if it was important, Brooke will tell her later.

The waiter comes to the table carrying the champagne and appetizer they took liberty of ordering while they were waiting for Brooke and Vanessa, leaving them with menus so they can choose a main course.

As they happily clink their glasses, Brooke kisses her cheek briefly, making warmth spread all over, removing all the uncertainty in an instant.

“So, tell us everything! How was it?” Vanessa leans forward.

Monet sighs, “it was wonderful,” and Nina adds, “so glad we decided to get the private suite, I almost said no because of the price but it was worth it”

“I hope you have pictures, cause I wanna see all of it,” Brooke says, then holds her hand up, “though no explicit content please, we are about to eat,” making all of them laugh and Nina roll her eyes while she pulls out her phone.

And of course they have, lots of pictures, when the main course arrives they’re only half way through. It looks beautiful and almost unreal, both of them clearly happy and sated in all pictures. 

Vanessa is reminded of the one time they went to Malibu for a week to have a proper vacation, which was a one-year anniversary present from Brooke. She had never been more relaxed and happy in her life. It was probably good she chose a location in US and not that exciting, otherwise they’d probably feel bad for only lounging and basically only having sex. After that, their lives just got busier and they never made a scheduled getaway. Brooke got promoted to chief of paediatric surgery and is headlining a research project this year, which Vanessa tries to understand what it’s about; only knows it sounds important. Vanessa herself is working into expansion of the bar as of recent, because the business is in a steady upscale. Career wise, neither one of them has stopped, only added more to their plates.

In terms of their relationship, it’s been a steady upscale as well. Brooke moved in with Vanessa somewhere around a year and a half into the relationship. Nina moved out when she and Monet found their apartment, and Brooke lasted three months alone in her apartment before she realized she slept there two times a week at best. Vanessa couldn’t believe she actually agreed to moving in, building up to that question was the most stressful thing she experienced, and when Brooke just paused for a minute and simply said yes, Vanessa was speechless.

“So how did you spend your anniversary then?” Monet moves her fork between Brooke and Vanessa.

Brooke seems to be barely able to properly swallow her food to answer so Vanessa speaks, “This one once again went all in,” she squeezes her thigh, “we spent the day together, she made me breakfast in bed, got me flowers delivered while she took Riley for a walk, then she ordered like a crazy amount of different bite size food along with dessert,” Vanessa notices a small blush appearing on Brooke while she speaks, “I swear, she was spoiling me so much if I didn’t know better I’d think she’s feeling guilty.”

That made Nina snort and a surprised laugh leave Monet.

“Only guilty of loving you,” Brooke teases and all of them make barf noises, including Vanessa.

Vanessa raises her finger, “and!” she exclaims, settling her laughter, “we decided on getting another cat.”

“Seriously?” Nina’s jaw drops, “but you only got Riley like, what, four months ago?”

Brooke shrugs, “She wanted to get another cat along with Riley but I advised against it, and now the breeder has the ragdoll kittens, so we couldn’t resist.”

“At this rate you’re about to have a wholeass zoo,” Monet laughs, taking a bite of her food.

Vanessa wouldn’t mind having a lot of animals, but she knows they’ll probably stop at the 4, especially since it’s getting crowded at the apartment. Riley was adopted because she always wanted a dog, but her mom never allowed it and her aunt was against it too, so he is mostly considered her pet. The new kitty, however, is shared custody.

It scared Vanessa when Brooke rejected her offer of them getting a kitten together because it sounded like she didn’t believe they were going to last to have a shared pet. It didn’t really result into a fight - more of a misunderstanding. In any case, Brooke explained that she wouldn’t mind getting the cat but that introducing one new pet is already a lot, not to mention it’s a different animal, and she wanted to wait for everyone to adjust first. So, it turned out it worked out for the best, because now they can get a ragdoll which is a breed both of them wanted.

“Now, tell us what else has been happening while we were gone?” Nina tops up everyone’s drinks and Brooke first updates her on the “drama” at the hospital since she promised she’ll pay attention this time so that Nina is up to speed when she gets back.

…

“Hey have you seen my Metallica dress?” Vanessa opens the door to the room that used to be her aunt’s bedroom but is now repurposed as a shared office for them, though Brooke uses it more often.

Brooke closes her laptop immediately, wide eyed, “Hm, what?”

This is not the first time she got shifty with her laptop, making Vanessa’s already perfectly done eyebrow rise. She slowly walks into the room, enjoying how she can almost feel Brooke’s attention move along her body. To be fair, she is only in sparkly net tights and a bra.

“You watching porn in here, Mami?” she teases looking pointedly at Brooke’s laptop and barely keeps a bit of accusation out of her tone.

Brooke shifts in her seat, trailing along her the lines of the laptop, “With you walking around like that?” she asks and slowly shakes her head.

_Changing the subject as always_, Vanessa mentally rolls her eyes, “I wouldn’t be walking around like this if I knew where my dress is.”

“What dress?” Brooke gets up from the desk.

“Metallica,” Vanessa says as she walks up to Brooke, standing between her legs as she leans against the desk, “did you see it?” 

Brooke lightly grazes her arm, “no I haven’t, sorry. I did only whites yesterday.”

“I wanted to wear that one,” Vanessa pouts, “even did my make up in purples.” It makes Brooke mimic her expression, a slight pout forming on her lips too. She then grabs her hands, moving them together, and says, “C’mon, I’ll help you look.”

She lightly pecks her lips and they move out of the office.

“I still don’t understand why you’re meeting at 6? Isn’t that a bit early?” Brooke asks as she looks through the laundry organiser.

Her friends were organising a belated birthday for her since all of their schedules couldn’t line up on the actual day, so she celebrated her birthday with Brooke and is now celebrating it again with Silky and Akeria, later joined by Kameron and Monique. 

Vanessa sighs, “Because Silky made dinner and a cake apparently. Akeria said that if we are going out at this age, at least we can pretend to be mature for a couple of hours.”

It makes Brooke chuckle, “send me pictures of the cake.”

“Will do,” Vanessa stands on a chair to see the top shelf better, “I’ll even save you a piece.”

Brooke spins around holding a hanger with the dress on it, “Found it! It fell on the ground here,” she points to the closet then mirrors Vanessa’s smile as she hands her the dress.

“Thanks,” Vanessa immediately puts it on, then checks herself in the mirror. Pleased with how she looks, she asks Brooke again, “you sure you don’t want to join us?”

Silky and Akeria told her that she is welcome, of course, but Brooke declined the offer, telling Vanessa she should have fun with her friends, because she already celebrated with Brooke. She had a point, rarely did the three of them hang out alone, usually joined by Brooke. It wasn’t an issue, since Vanessa usually joined with Brooke’s friends too, but Brooke technically had alone time with her friends, because she works with them, and Vanessa has to schedule seeing Silky.

“Yes, I’m very sure. I have things I need to finalize today, so don’t worry about me,” Brooke smiles, then reaches out to fix a stray lock of hair, “are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up too?”

Vanessa relaxes as Brooke embraces her, “yes, I’ll Uber, there’s no telling how long we’ll stay out”

“Okay,” Brooke pecks her shortly, but it doesn’t end there - she leans in again, kisses changing direction fast, making Vanessa grip her upper arms.

She breaks them an inch apart, “Mami, if you don’t stop with the teasing today, I’ll have no choice but to cancel on my own birthday party.”

“Hah,” Brooke bumps their noses and is about to say something when her phone rings.

Vanessa doesn’t manage to see who is calling since Brooke, turns the phone away and moves toward the door, “I have to take this, I’ll go get the car started?” she asks but doesn’t wait for an answer.

A frown immediately appears on Vanessa’s face.

…

“She did it again!” Vanessa says while nervously stabbing at the delicious food in front of her, “I’m telling you, something is up,” she takes a too big of a bite.

Akeria eyes her while she takes a sip of wine and Silky speaks up, “Are you sure you’re not just overreacting? It’s Brooke, how suspicious can she act?”

Vanessa forcibly swallows, pointing at her index finger, “She keeps taking calls in other rooms, she never does that,” then lifts her second finger, “sometimes if I get close to her while she’s on her laptop, she’ll immediately close it, and third there is that whole weird thing at dinner yesterday,” her arms cross, “she is hiding something.”

“I mean, she ain’t wrong to be suspicious,” Akeria looks at Silky, “it has been going on for month now,” to which Silky shrugs.

It makes her pause. It has been a month now since she noticed that behaviour.

Her heartbeat immediately quickens, she starts stabbing at the food again, “what if she’s cheating on me?” as she says it, her stomach clenches; no, she doesn’t believe that, Brooke wouldn’t do that, “or what if she found someone else and wants to break up?” she shoves food in her mouth again.

“Okay, I know my food is amazing, but you don’t need to choke with it,” Silky lightly places a hand on Vanessa’s forearm, “there is no way she wants to leave you, you’ve got that doctor Barbie wrapped around your little finger.”

Akeria nods in agreement, “I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation for everything, Brooke loves you to pieces, and she’s not the cheating type.”

“Next time she does it, just say something,” Silky suggests.

Vanessa thinks about it, taking the last bite of food. Her friends are right, it’s Brooke at the end of the day, and if she there were any red flags, Akeria and Silky would be the first ones pointing them out, loudly. She takes a deep breath and reminds herself of every other perfect aspect of their relationship. This is probably nothing.

“Okay,” she nods, “I’m good. And I want that cake,” she pulls a huge grin from Silky, “it better be chocolate or we’re gonna have words Silks.”

Silky laughs as she gets up, “like we met today,” she rolls her eyes and makes her way to the kitchen.

“I still can’t believe you made Kameron and Monique work today,” Akeria huffs.

“Someone has to work Kiks. Monique would be meeting us later anyways, how could I predict Ariel getting sick? We’ll see them at the club in like an hour and a half,” Vanessa shakes her head. She is well aware Akeria wanted them to get a proper drink on during dinner and ensure Vanessa is surrounded by all of them, which she appreciates.

Silky walks in with the cake, medium-sized very chocolaty, candles already lit, “I disagree, I like that I can kiki with just the two of you, I miss the Dream Girls.”

Vanessa gets teary eyed as Silky places the cake in front of her, Akeria already with her phone out undoubtedly taking pictures.

“Happy Birthday Vanj,” they both say in unison, Silky continuing, “make a wish, and make it good, like a doctor, but Ken, in my life.”

She looks at the candles burning and can honestly say there is nothing she is missing in her life. Brooke is always someone who first comes to mind, even before there was a name attached to the person who makes her feel loved and cared for, but that wish was fulfilled long ago. Her best friends are still here and absolutely wonderful. Her family is in good health and the bar is doing great.

For the first time in her life, it’s hard to wish for something.

_‘Wish my friends are as happy as I am right now’_, she thinks and blows the candles.

…

Brooke was just about to fall asleep when she hears the door to the apartment opening with a loud thud, followed by “Shhh, you’re gonna wake up Brooke,” from Silky. There is no response besides giggles that are definitely Vanessa’s

She removes the covers, quickly puts her robe on and walks out.

Neither of them notice her, which makes sense since it is clear they are drunk. Vanessa apparently more than Silky since she is barely standing upright, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, while Silky is trying to untie her strappy heels, unable to find where the knot is.

It’s just a little past 2am and Brooke is honestly impressed they’re already home.

“You need help?” she makes herself present.

Silky looks up at her voice, like deer caught in the headlights, while Vanessa doesn’t even move.

“Brooke Lynn!” Silky whisper yells, pointing at her than at Vanessa, “your girl here is…,” she hiccups, “so drunk.”

She moves closer, helping her stand and give up on Vanessa’s heels, “Yes I can see. Did you have fun? Hope you saved me some cake.”

Silky nods, barely following her, “yesss, there were so many people…so many drinks, my god,” she pauses, “and yes there’s cake, Vanessa threatened we can’t eat it all.”

“Good,” Brooke says as she tries to steady her, “how about you crash here and I’ll take care of this one,” she offers and nods toward Vanessa.

She only gets a thumbs up as a response before Silky makes her way to the living room and just falls on the couch. Brooke then focuses on Vanessa and carefully leads her to their room, basically carries her since she is deadweight, but thankfully the walk is short. 

It was her intention to seat her on the bed but Vanessa just slumps down, eyes still closed. Brooke barely keeps her laugh in at the state of disarray before her. It is not often she sees Vanessa drunk, let alone this drunk. If she remembers anything tomorrow, Brooke will be surprised.

She unties her heels, putting them next to the bed and goes to remove her tights when her arms get slapped away, “nu-huh, keep your hands to yourself,” Vanessa says, still not opening her eyes. Brooke is about to protest when she continues, “all of this is wifed up,” she vaguely gestures to her body.

While Brooke is hundred percent sure in what her and Vanessa have, the possessive side in her gets a special kind of satisfaction at those words.

She pulls her hands back and just chuckles at her. Yeah, she’ll definitely need to get some water in her if she wants to make this work. Especially if she wants to save Vanessa the distress of waking up with a full face of make-up. So after she grabs the cup of water she left for herself on the nightstand, she props Vanessa up, trying to make her drink it while leaning on Brooke.

“C’mon baby, work with me here,” she pushes the cup against Vanessa’s lips, “just a little sip, you can do it.”

Vanessa then squints, “Brooke?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Brooke rubs her back, “drink some water for me please.”

She immediately obeys, taking a tiniest sip then her eyes close again, and her head falls against Brooke’s shoulder, “thank god you’re here,” she mumbles, “someone was trying to feel me up.”

‘_Oh my god’_, she thinks while she facepalms, laughing to herself. “I’m gonna get some makeup wipes so we can get you ready for bed, okay?” she lifts Vanessa’s head from her shoulder, holding it carefully, waiting for a response which comes a few seconds later in a form of a slow nod and a quiet “Okay.”

She lays her back down on the bed and pauses for a moment, lightly caressing her hair. “I’m glad we’re on the same page though,” Brooke whispers before she kisses her temple and leaves.

…

Vanessa wakes up to a pulsing pain in her head. It’s so bad she can barely open her eyes. A small groan escapes her lips.

“Morning,” a voice she usually loves to hear, definitely worsens her headache. Only then she becomes aware of her body, she’s lying on Brooke’s stomach, arm around her, and Brooke is slowly carding her fingers through her hair. They normally don’t sleep like this because Brooke doesn’t like sleeping on her back but it seems she’s been awake for a while judging by her voice.

“What died in my mouth?” Vanessa asks, noticing she’s even drooling a bit.

Brooke stops her ministrations and chuckles, “a bottle of tequila, I’d say,” then holds her while she moves a bit before a glass of water appears in front of Vanessa’s face.

She gets up slightly, taking the glass and is immediately handed what she assumes are aspirins, “Thank you.”

There is a book open next to Brooke’s leg, so she’s been definitely awake for a while.

Vanessa sighs as she downs the whole glass of water, feeling better with each drop, her throat not as dry anymore but the headache is still there. Then she looks at Brooke who is back to reading her book, one arm still open, leaving a space if Vanessa wants to crawl back in.

“What time is it?” she asks, and Brooke takes her eyes off of the pages, “just a little bit past 10”

Now that was great news, “perfect,” she goes back to lying in the same position and Brooke goes back to playing with her hair. “I’d kiss you but I don’t want to subject you to my rank breath right now and I can’t go brush my teeth, not until these pills kick in,” Vanessa says, pressing herself closer.

“I’ll find it in me to forgive you,” Brooke chuckles and Vanessa feels her kiss the top of her head.

She returns the gesture by kissing her stomach then closes her eyes and says, “just so you know, I am not cooking anything today. You’re on your own Mami,”

Brooke chuckles again, “okay.”

Vanessa feels her stop, probably to turn the page, and her hand comes back down, but now to scratch her arm in an up and down manner which literally puts her to sleep in a matter of minutes.

Next time she wakes up, her head is not hurting as much and she’s alone in the bed. She takes her phone which is fully charged, thanks to Brooke, and sees its almost one pm. There is faint music coming from the living room and if Vanessa has to guess, it’s probably Coldplay - one of Brooke’s favourite relaxing activities is cooking and having either Coldplay or Lana Del Rey softly playing in the background. Actually, Brooke doing meal preps for them is the only reason Vanessa has a healthy diet, which Brooke probably knows, but she insists that it’s just easier this way and that she honestly enjoys doing it, so Vanessa is not about to complain. Especially since the biggest surprise about Brooke when they started living together was how messy she is. So, Vanessa keeps the apartment clean; a win-win situation.

“Oh good, you’re up,” Brooke smiles at Vanessa when she enters, throwing the kitchen towel over her shoulder, “food’s almost done.” And she was right, Coldplay is playing in the background.

Vanessa walks up to her and softly presses their lips together, staying under her arm, “thank you.”

“Feeling better?” Brooke asks rubbing her back and Vanessa nods, “yeah, the pills helped, still queasy though.”

Brooke hums, “okay, I made chicken soup, so that should help. And sweet potato pie is in the oven.”

“You’re the best,” Vanessa kisses her cheek, “I’ll set the table.” 

Vanessa takes out the plates and the cutlery, even a table cloth and sets the table proper nicely. It’s Sunday and she loves that they kept the tradition; when Vanessa asked Brooke about it long time ago, she just shrugged and said “it matters to you so it matters to me, plus I like having a set day just for us, it’s nice”. Vanessa almost started crying then and there, but her aunt definitely started crying when she heard of it. Needless to say, Brooke was immediately accepted, receiving extra hugs and kisses when they first met for that Christmas/meet-the-family day. Though, Vanessa is yet to meet Brooke’s family. Brooke did inform her sister and, later on, her mum, but her sister is too busy to visit or be visited and her mum is pretending this isn’t happening when they do talk.

It makes Vanessa sad for Brooke, even though she insists that it’s not a big deal and that she was aware early on that she’d have to create her own family. And Vanessa is fully willing to share hers.

“Did you sleep on the couch?” Vanessa asks when she’s taken out of her thoughts by the bed sheets and pillows in the living room.

Brooke frowns, “no? Silky crashed here, she left a bit before you woke up.”

Vanessa also frowns, not remembering that at all; come to think of it, she doesn’t remember anything past the round of drinks that were brought around midnight, “wow, I really drank my weight.”

“Yes you did,” Brooke chuckles, turning off the oven and placing the soup on the table first, “do you remember anything?”

Vanessa follows her to the table and they sit down, “I do; it’s fuzzy though. I remember dinner and meeting up with Kameron and Monique, then drinking a round of shots, dancing, then making friends with the table next to us, which was not such a good idea since one guy kept hitting on me,” she then pauses, spoon mid-air, “oh my god I cheated on you.”

Brooke’s head whipped up so fast to look at her, face immediately losing colour, “What?”

Vanessa covers her eyes, “I kissed Akeria,” and Brooke lets out a breath, hand going up to cover her heart, “it lasted just a bit, she did it because she was trying to get him off my back, I promise I didn’t mean to,” she quickly rambles out.

“Baby, it’s okay,” Brooke shakes her hand, “that doesn’t bother me…though you could’ve led with that, you had me there for a second,” a small chuckle escapes her lips.

It seems like Vanessa confused her breath of relief with shock, though she still studies Brooke for a second, “are you sure, because I’d understand if you’re mad.”

“Yes, I’m fine with it, especially in that setting,” Brooke says then frowns before taking a bite of her food, “I mad that still, some people won’t take no for an answer and that you have to go lengths to get them to back off.”

“You can just say men,” Vanessa smiles.

Brooke pauses then laughs, “yeah.”

“Anyways I had fun, but I for sure didn’t mean to get that drunk. Those last shots really did me dirty,” Vanessa shakes her head.

Brooke moves the soup then and takes out the sweet potato pie, cutting them each a piece. They eat in silence for a moment before Vanessa asks her what has she been doing and the easy conversation picks up again.

It’s another Sunday where delicious food is on the table, Riley is lying next to her feet, Henry is napping on the chair next to Brooke and Apollo is probably in his bed in the living room. Once again Vanessa thinks about how she could do this forever.

…

Vanessa changes from her bar shirt to a nice printed top, replaces her sneakers with heels, lets her hair down and goes back to the front.

“So, have you figured out where she’s taking you?” Akeria asks her when she sits down on the bar stool.

She checks her messages again, but Brooke didn’t send anything past the _I’ll be there soon, _and Vanessa is equal parts excited and terribly impatient, “No, I asked her multiple times and she won’t say anything. And I can’t get it out of her through text.”

Monique gets closer to them, “how do you even know she’s taking you somewhere? She could’ve just changed her hair and calls it surprise, it’s Brooke after all,” Monique shrugs, “no offence.”

Vanessa laughs, because, well, she isn’t wrong, Brooke is anything but unpredictable. That’s why Vanessa is confused as to what surprise could she have in mid-day on Monday. Especially since she’s not the one for surprises.

“I swear if she’s taking me to that trampoline park that opened…” Vanessa shakes her head, pressing on the phone to see if there are any new messages despite being fully aware she turned the sounds on so she’d hear it and see it.

Akeria frowns, “why the hell would she take you there? Isn’t that for kids?”

“Because I mentioned it opened and that it looks real fun,” she waves her hand, “and no. It is not for kids, it’s an adult trampoline park.”

Monique snorts, then looks at Akeria, “is this a lesbian thing, weird workout activities?”

“First, that’s offensive,” Vanessa throws a napkin at her, “second, it’s a thing of people who like to have fun, don’t pretend you wouldn’t be the first one to throw your heels and jump if you were given one…both of you.”

Akeria chuckles, “the attitude from you, oh my god. No need to be prickly, your girl is probably gonna take you somewhere nice, chill.”

Just as she was about to answer, her screen lights up with a message from Brooke that she’s right outside, “well my ride has finally arrived. See you tomorrow!”

“Have fun jumping around,” Vanessa hears Monique yell after her, followed by Akeria’s “don’t sprain your kitty.” She waves at them without turning around and leaves the bar.

Brooke is parked in front of the entrance, in a car she bought couple of months ago, for some reason unknown to Vanessa. She didn’t want to buy one when Nina moved out because she soon moved in with Vanessa who lives only 15ish minutes away from the hospital, so she deemed it unnecessary. In any case they make the most of it, plus Vanessa likes being chauffeured around.

She opens the door and jumps in, “Hi Mami,” smiling sweetly at Brooke before leaning over to give her a quick kiss, feeling her smiling into it.

“Hi,” Brooke responds when they separate and Vanessa puts her seatbelt on then immediately turns to look at her, “so what’s the surprise?” she asks, giving her a once over in case Monique was right and she did, in fact, just change something in her appearance.

“If I tell you, it’s not a surprise then,” she says casually, and Vanessa crosses her arms, “c’mon, you’ve left me wondering all morning.”

“Then you won’t have a problem wondering for about 20 minutes more,” Brooke smirks and starts driving.

Vanessa wants to protest but knows it’s futile so she just decides to keep shaking her leg and try to figure it out by herself.

Brooke does seem more nervous than usual, her grip on the steering wheel is stronger than normal, she’s keeping focus on the road and the biggest tell is the small calming breaths Vanessa recognizes from anytime her anxieties spike. 

It seems like it could be something important, at least to Brooke, so Vanessa decides to continue on like there isn’t something happening soon.

When she starts talking about her day, like she normally would when they see each other, a little bit of tension leaves Brooke’s body and she reaches over, placing her hand on Vanessa’s thigh, just like she normally would, when they’re in the car, and listens to her.

And just like that, time passes, Vanessa only noticing they’ve arrived when Brooke stops and turns the car off. Now Brooke seems to steel herself and squeezes Vanessa’s thigh before letting go to get out and open the door for her.

Vanessa is not familiar with their surroundings but it looks like a posh residential area, she then notices they are parked in front of a huge house, size only seen on those MTV Crib shows she used to watch when she was young.

“Where the hell are we?” she asks Brooke who smiles, “please tell me you didn’t bring me to meet your family looking like this,” Vanessa panics immediately.

“No, I didn’t,” Brooke laughs, extending her hand so Vanessa can take it and leads her to the front door. Vanessa stares at her expectantly, shock covering her features when Brooke opens the door to the house and turns to walk inside.

“Brooke, what-“ Vanessa starts when she’s pulled inside too, but is interrupted, “I found this house some time ago,” they walk through a long hallway passing the stairway, “it caught my eye right away because there was so much potential,” they enter into a huge kitchen area, with a large dining table, all in a colour scheme that is questionable to Vanessa.

She looks around and turns to Brooke, “Brooke what is happening?”

Brooke ignores that question and continues, “you see, I saw this kitchen and thought there is so much space and there is enough light to make our Sunday lunches even more fun, maybe even daring if we decide to do more intricate meals.”

Vanessa gasps, squeezing Brooke’s hand, who squeezes right back. Then she leads her to the next room, which is a not-fully-furnished living room and speaks up again, “here I thought, we could have big couches so that we can comfortably all sit on them when we’re watching movies, so that it’s not a constant fight between the cats and Riley for a place between us,” and Vanessa doesn’t dare speak anymore because she’s already barely keeping tears at bay, so she just nods, an iron grip on Brooke’s hand.

Brooke then leads her upstairs to a huge bedroom with a king size bed, if even that is a proper measure since Vanessa is sure three people could comfortably sleep there. There are dressers and a huge window looking into the backyard.

“This bed is definitely something both of us deserve, with my bad back and your never ending sore muscles from standing, and well…we have more space to throw around,” Brooke explains smiling and Vanessa isn’t sure if Brooke is also teary eyed or her vision is blurred due to her own tears.

“Next is one of the bathrooms, connected only to this room,” Brooke opens the doors, “that has a large enough bath so we both comfortably fit and enough counter space for all our clutter that keeps getting mixed up at home,”

Vanessa is not completely sure where all of this is going but she is sure that she’s near a heart attack from how much it’s beating. Brooke seems to be trying to compose herself too, squeezing her hand once again before taking her to another room, which is next to theirs, a spacious one but with no furniture.

“There is another room just like this one, when we decide we want to bring more additions to our life,“ Brooke says and that’s what breaks the dam, silent tears spilling down Vanessa’s face. She already made peace with the fact that they may not have kids and to hear Brooke say this…it’s almost too much.

Brooke moves closer, gently wiping her tears away, and Vanessa leans in her touch, “Brooke I don’t understand…”

Then she pulls out a small black velvet box and Vanessa’s knees buckle.

“I don’t have a ring because I want to pick them out together,” Brooke says, voice shaking, then opens the box, revealing a key, “but, I do have this house for you, that we can build together and make a home out of it, if you are willing to start the next chapter of our lives and marry me?”

Vanessa is hundred percent sure that never in her life has she felt so many emotions at once, a happy sob ripping out of her causing her to burst into tears then jump on Brooke who manages to hold her up. She squeezes her so tight, her own arms start to numb.

“Is that a yes?” Brooke softly asks, burying her face in Vanessa’s neck.

She first starts frantically nodding, then says, “of course it’s a yes, you idiot.”

Vanessa feels a breath of relief leave Brooke and she pulls from her embrace so she can kiss her silly. Tears and all.

“Did I do good? I know you like those big proposals-,” Brooke starts, but doesn’t get to finish because Vanessa kisses her again and mumbles “shut up,” against her lips, then continues kissing her some more.

Brooke separates their lips, then presses a light kiss to Vanessa’s temple and hugs her again.

“Why today?” Vanessa asks softly.

They separate slightly so they can look at each other, “actually, it was supposed to be on our anniversary, but there was a problem with the paperwork, then it was supposed to be yesterday but they haven’t changed the locks by Friday like they were supposed to, I didn’t want to wait anymore so when they handed me the key and the final papers to sign I immediately texted you,” Brooke explains, playing with Vanessa’s fingers slightly.

Now it all makes sense to Vanessa, “Oh,” she then tilts her head, “wait so this is really ours?”

“Really really, we just have to sign the papers that are in the car, but yes, this is our house,” Brooke smiles, both of them getting teary eyed again.

“I love you so much,” Vanessa says and hugs her again.

“I love you,” Brooke kisses her shoulder and they stay like that for a second before Vanessa squeezes her, inhales deeply and says, “okay, now give me a proper tour of our house, I need to start planning the renovations!”

Brooke laughs, “you are doing the renovations?” they walk out of the room and back down the stairs, “I don’t get a say?”

“Mami, you and I both know I have the superior taste in interior design,” Vanessa says matter-of-factly, shrugging.

There is a mock gasp from Brooke, “lies.”

Vanessa pulls Brooke against her when they reach the ground floor, chuckling, “I’ll let you pick the curtains.”

This would usually continue on, as they love to banter just for the heck of it, but this time Brooke’s expression softens - probably realising the same as Vanessa – this is it.

“We are getting married,” Vanessa says.

“Yes we are baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading and commenting and giving this story some love! I love you guys, you always made my day. If you want to talk more I'm @blhates on tumblr as well. Till next time ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it¨!


End file.
